Lake Forest: a company, a newspaper syndicate of, a plunging, a gannetry; and three poems

 

The photos come from my long time friends, Susan and Howard, who are camping across Canada.  They were taken at the gannet colony at Cape St. Mary’s, Newfoundland.

There are three species of gannets.  One resides mostly in the British Isles and has as you can see spread across the Atlantic to Canada.  They sometimes venture south along the Atlantic coast.  A friend has seen them off Cape Hatteras.  I may have seen one off Hilton Head, but the sighting was so brief I am not certain.  A second species is found in South Africa.  And the one after which I named GANNET in Australia and New Zealand.  Those hatched in New Zealand fly across the Tasman during their first year, returning to their birth colony two years later.  Birds make incredible and thus far inexplicable flights.

I found myself wondering what the collective noun is for gannets and found there are four as listed in the title of this entry.  I have no idea the origin of ‘a newspaper syndicate of’ other than that the largest newspaper syndicate in the U.S. is owned by the Gannett (sic) Corporation.  I like ‘a plunging’ best.  By whatever name they are beautiful birds who are called ‘masters of the wind’.  I like that too.

I thank Susan and Howard for permission to share their photos with you.  Cape St. Mary’s is intriguing.

Three poems, actually maybe more because one has four parts.  You may notice that part four of ‘Waves Shifting Sand’ is not included.  It was not in CLASSICAL CHINESE POETRY.  

The first two were written by Meng Chiao, who lived 751-814 A.D.  The last is a somewhat atypical poem by Robert Frost, who I am surprised to learn was born in San Francisco in 1874.  He died in Boston in 1963.