Dear all,

It's been a while since I've sent an update on my recent posts so I've got lots of new and slightly older posts to talk about.

I'm in Baton Rouge in the US en-route to flights from New Orleans, Dallas-Fort Worth, Sydney and Alice Springs that should see me get home by about Thursday next week.

I've had a great time - started in New Orleans at the Society of Ethnobiology conference at Tulane University then Mark Bonta and I traveled up to Cleveland in the Mississippi delta where he is a Professor in geography at Delta State University.

Mark and his family (Hi Luz and Eva!!) showed me the best of American hospitality and we spent much of the last week criss-crossing the Mississippi delta and western Tennessee by car - poking our way down all sorts of dusty backroads and cruising through the many small townships scattered across the delta.

And to cap it off we had a great night at Po' Monkey's, a jook joint not far from Cleveland - more on that later.

Anyway, here are some of my posts over the last couple of months...

* Bird of the week - Peregrine Falcon - from a waterhole near to my home in the Tanami Desert.

* A chat with Graham Watson - I caught up with renowned cycling photographer Graham Watson in Adelaide during the Tour Down Under in late January.

* Australian nature writing - missing inaction? - some thoughts about the past, current and future state of nature writing in Australia - inspired by some recent examples of 'new' nature writing from the UK.

* Warlukurlangu - taking the desert to (New) Delhi - a report on an exhibition in New Delhi, India of artworks from Australia's Tanami Desert.

* Grasshopper of the week - Jintilyka - Sand Grasshoppers - some photos and thoughts on a jewel-like insect found in Australia's arid zone.

* Bird of the week - Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera - some photos of and a short story about a unique and beautiful granivore from near to my home at Yuendumu.

* Society of Ethnobiology 32nd annual conference - Tulane University, New Orleans - a short note about the conference where I made a presentation on the "Bird-man cult of rapa Nui (Easter Island)" in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

* The Zanzibar Leopard - anthropology, cryptozoology and conservation in Zanzibar - a note about a paper by my friend and ethnoornithological colleague, Martin Walsh of cambridge University on an elusive species from east Africa.

* East African Notes & Records - the Pangolin in East African local knowledge - another note on another enigmatic species from Africa - the Pangolin - which I'd never heard of until I was introduced to it by Martin Walsh of Cambridge University in the UK who has studied local knowledge and beliefs about the pangolin in east Africa.

* The Church with the Hand Pointing Heavenward - Port Gibson Miss. - a wonderful example of inspirational religious architecture from the south - here from Port Gibson in the Mississippi delta.

* Margaret’s Grocery and Market, Vicksburg, Mississippi - another fine example of southern architecture from the Mississippi delta - here the Reverend H D Denniss's works from Vicksburg.

* Ten Poems about Highways and Birds…via negativa - an introduction to some beatiful new poems by Sarah Bennett about the road and the birds you can met there - and also a bumch of blogs from Dave Bonta.

* Sawfish massacre in the NT - commercial fishers to blame? - a sad story about environmental vandalism and the slaughter of the innocent by professional fishermen in the NT.

* Bird of the week - Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura - a couple of photos and a short introduction to this common bird found thoughout most of the continental US.

Thats all for now - if you have any queries or want to make a comment please don't hesitate to post a comment - I'll be traveling for the next few days and will catch up with your thoughts when I stop moving later in the week.

Cheers and thanks,

Bob Gosford
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Robert Gosford
Crikey.com
The Northern Myth blog
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/
Yuendumu, NT
Australia