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	<title>Three Star Owl - Functional and Sculptural Clay Artwork with a Natural History</title>
	<link>http://threestarowl.com</link>
	<description>Three Star Owl clay studio</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:52:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 14</title>
		<description><![CDATA[UPDATE: I&#8217;ve just made it easier to navigate between episodes of What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah. Now at the beginning of each new episode there are links to previous installments: one to the immediately previous episode, and one to the very first episode.  In addition, there&#8217;s a link at the end of each episode [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-14</link>
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		<title>Not my hen</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Anna&#8217;s hummers are capable of setting clutches just about year round in warm climate states like Arizona and California.  The little males have been doing their combo territorial and courtship dives &#8212; which culminate in a loud, popping &#8220;CHEEP&#8221; sound &#8211; since December, at least in our neighborhood.  This little Hen in Tucson has gotten [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/not-my-hen</link>
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		<title>Willcox at eye level</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Like the Sandhill cranes, I usually visit Willcox in the winter.  That&#8217;s when the town hosts Wings Over Willcox, a birding and cultural event celebrating the cold season presence of Sandhill cranes, who dwell in the fields and wetlands of the Sulphur Springs Valley from October to March.  (below, Stewart St. in Willcox AZ.  Photo [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/willcox-at-eye-level</link>
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		<title>Crane-o-rama!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tens of thousands of Sandhill cranes winter in the fields and wetlands of far southeastern Arizona each year, and they have their own festival: Wings Over Willcox, held in mid-January by the historical community of Willcox, AZ. This year is the 19th Annual WOW Festival, and it&#8217;s part of SE Arizona&#8217;s celebration of the state [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/crane-o-rama</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 13</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Note to readers: It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve had the time to advance the tale of the archæological site called Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah and its inhabitants.  The progress of Professor Einer Wayfarer&#8217;s efforts on that remote ridge in the  Negev Desert to observe the seemingly out-of-place and elusive protégé of her [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-13</link>
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		<title>Moonshots</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s the total lunar eclipse from the Phoenix area this morning, just before totality.  The desert skies were clear, so that we had a wonderful dark sky view of the first half of the event.  But totality began right at sunrise, so just as the whole moon was shadowed, it sank in a sky too [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/moonshots</link>
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		<title>Last chance to see&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230; &#8220;Ossuary: an archæology of resurrection&#8221; in the show Death and Rebirth at Maryville University&#8217;s Morton May Gallery in St.Louis.  The show will be up until this friday, December 2.  Click here for details about the show and about the Ossuary.
&#60;&#60; Detail (photo and piece, A.Shock)
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/last-chance-to-see</link>
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		<title>El Guajolote Supremo</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Photo of an Ocellated Turkey, Chan Chich, Belize (A or E Shock) More photos here.

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		<link>http://threestarowl.com/birds/el-guajolote-supremo</link>
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		<title>Tale of Two Tiny Tarantulas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On our way home from our weekend getaway, E and I stopped at Montezuma Well National Monument.  It&#8217;s one of our favorite places: a compact confluence of archæology, geology, and natural history. If you haven&#8217;t been there while visiting central Arizona, I highly recommend it.
&#62;&#62; Montezuma Well and beautiful fall color (all photos in this [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/tale-of-two-tiny-tarantulas</link>
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		<title>Gratuitous Arizona scenery</title>
		<description><![CDATA[E and I managed a bit of a getaway northward this weekend.   We&#8217;re back home now, unsure if we were gone a month or a minute.  But I&#8217;ll be putting up some images from the trip to prove we were somewhere else, for however long it was.  Here&#8217;s one from late Sunday afternoon, of yuccas [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/field-trips/gratuitous-arizona-scenery</link>
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		<title>Her majesty deigns to be photographed</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I felt like a paparazza, drawing as close as I dared, trying to hold my proper camera with the big zoom steady in the failing light.  But she was calmly perched out in the open, low on our back fence, mobbed by smaller birds.  Hummingbirds orbited her, scolding, like cheeky electrons, but she ignored them. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/her-majesty-deigns-to-be-photographed</link>
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		<title>Pick of the litter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Among the sculptural vessels I&#8217;ve made recently for upcoming holiday sales, a couple things stand out.  This is one of them:
Feather Bundle Jar with Owl (13.5&#8243; ht, stoneware 2011, photo and object A.Shock)  &#62;&#62;
What you can&#8217;t see in the photo is the interior glaze, a fiery glossy red that contrasts strongly with the dry, dinosaur-green [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/pick-of-the-litter</link>
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		<title>Kea key: spoiler alert!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You probably found the bird already &#8212; it&#8217;s a kea &#8212; but if not below is a partially colorized version of the photo in the previous Spot the Bird post.
This big alpine parrot, its head partially obscured by vegetation, was one of the freeloaders who hang out near the line of cars waiting to pass [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/birds/kea-key-spoiler-alert</link>
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		<title>Spot the Bird!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Me: reminiscing about our trip to New Zealand a while back.  You: trying to Spot the Bird.
It shouldn&#8217;t be too hard, but here&#8217;s a hint: you&#8217;re looking for a parrot.  Now don&#8217;t go clicking on the photo to enlarge it right off the bat, you&#8217;ll make it too easy!  (And, by the way, it&#8217;s a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/spot-the-bird</link>
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		<title>&#8230;more Three Star Owl news&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Deadlines, shows, and orders have been keeping me busy in the studio the past few weeks as the pre-holiday calendar winds up to year&#8217;s end.  Not complaining!  But, I have noticed that recently this space has been more full than usual of Three Star Owl news and less full of natural history, birds, and fiction [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/more-three-star-owl-news</link>
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		<title>Happy Halloween!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Not a real owl!  I photographed this owlmorphic clump of cobwebs and autumn leaves in a tree hollow on Cape Cod in 2007.
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/owls/happy-halloween-2</link>
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		<title>Happy Owl Face</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Camelback Studio Tour in the Sherwood Heights neighborhood of southern Scottsdale is over until the next one (that&#8217;s March 9, 10, 11, 2012, by the way, so mark your calendars now), and I&#8217;m tired but happy.  Thanks to all who came by to visit, shop, or both.  The sale seemed to occupy the last [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/happy-owl-face</link>
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		<title>One more day &#8212; Camelback Studio Tour</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the little white booth in the desert.  It&#8217;s Three Star Owl&#8217;s show tent, currently set up in the backyard for the Camelback Studio Tour and housing an ever-decreasing number of objects.  It&#8217;s great fun to have people drop in and peruse the selection, marvel at E&#8217;s epic number of specimen cactus and succulents, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/one-more-day-camelback-studio-tour</link>
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		<title>Come visit the Ossuary</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Next Friday Saturday and Sunday Oct 21, 22, 23,  is the Camelback Studio Tour, and Three Star Owl will have wares available for you to peruse and perhaps purchase. Other artists&#8217; studios nearby in the neighborhood will be open as well, with more than 20 artists offering their art for pre-holiday shopping. Support local artists [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/come-visit-the-ossuary</link>
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		<title>Upcoming Three Star Owl manifestations</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of Three Star Owl events you should know about are coming right up &#8212; these are your only two chances for pre-holiday shopping for Beastieware, Wazzoware and the like.  Both are Phoenix-area events:
The first is the Camelback Studio Tour, Fri Sat and Sun October 21 22 23, from 10am to 5pm.  My yard [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/upcoming-three-star-owl-manifestations</link>
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		<title>Spot the bird (easy)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yes, I realize that this is a very easy Spot the Bird.  Although it was hiding among the lower branches of a mesquite, the bird is very easy to spot, here in the photo.  But, driving past, not so easy.  And it doesn&#8217;t think it&#8217;s easy to spot.  The bird, a Greater Roadrunner, thinks it [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/spot-the-bird-easy</link>
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		<title>Cranky Owlet is having&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;a bad hair day.

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		<link>http://threestarowl.com/cranky-owlet/cranky-owlet-is-having</link>
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		<title>Categorical gory detail</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Most readers probably follow this blog by reading day-to-day, post-to-post as new entries are uploaded &#8212; I appreciate that: thanks for reading!  Here&#8217;s another way to view the Three Star Owl journal &#8212; by categories. In case you haven&#8217;t noticed them, categories are the long list of words partway down the left-hand side-bar.  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/three-star-owl/categorical-gory-detail</link>
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		<title>Drawn in: The Curious Case of the Owl in the Notebook</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The VLO (Very Large Owl) sculpture &#8220;Windblown Owl&#8221; found a new home recently.  The next VLO is underway, currently drying and eventually migrating to a client in California (shhhh, it&#8217;s a surprise), and I wanted to use the same greenish-golden surface coloring and glazing effect on the new owl.
I had a basic idea of what [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/drawn-in-the-curious-case-of-the-owl-in-the-notebook</link>
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		<title>Face of a Sphinx</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The morning after our latest haboob I found an expiring Sphinx moth, battered by the winds and on its last legs.  It was a big one, not as colorful as some, but marked like bark in black and white, with three orange spots on its abdomen.  It&#8217;s a fairly large animal: about three inches long, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/face-of-a-sphinx</link>
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		<title>Haboob-o-rama</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This summer, there&#8217;s been much haboobery in the Phoenix area, causing a veritable Haboob-O-Rama.  Just this evening (Sunday) we had what was by my count the fourth significant dust storm of the 2011 monsoon season, which should be winding down, but isn&#8217;t.  There&#8217;s still dust in our yard from the first big one, which came [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/haboob-o-rama</link>
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		<title>Tiny jumper</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Doesn&#8217;t it look like a Jeep?
Those dark &#8220;headlights&#8221; are eyes, which jumping spiders, unlike most spiders, rely on to hunt.  I can count three pairs: two on the front (big and little) and one on the side (little).  See &#8216;em?  There may be more&#8230;

We photographed this tiny jumping spider before relocating it outside, since the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/tiny-jumper</link>
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		<title>Are you aware of vultures?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[They&#8217;re aware of you!!  It&#8217;s International Vulture Awareness Day, so look alive&#8230;
&#60;&#60; Turkey vulture, Cathartes aura.  (Photo A.Shock)
Please to note the Pervious Nostril! Click here for more information.

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		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/are-you-aware-of-vultures</link>
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		<title>Anna&#8217;s on an aloe</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
This isn&#8217;t a short-billed hummer, it&#8217;s just that the resolution on a zoom photo wasn&#8217;t up to capturing the thin bill against the rough-textured block wall.  Still, pretty good for a phone camera. (photo by A.Shock)
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/annas-on-an-aloe</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 12</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the twelfth installment of a series. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the thirteenth installment.  Read Part 11 by clicking here, or start at the very beginning by clicking here. 
Previously:
After encountering an anomalous fragment of pottery decorated with a bee and a possible flower, the Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-12</link>
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		<title>Tucson in the rearview mirror: and&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I rolled back into Phoenix from Tucson earlier today &#8212; the drive seemed nearly instantaneous and was marvelously uneventful, although I did miss the bumper crop of towering dust devils swirling in the dry creosote flats on the Gila River reservation that I&#8217;d seen on the way down but was unable to photograph safely from [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/tucson-in-the-rearview-mirror-and</link>
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		<title>Owl whistle necklaces</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Update as of Monday 22Aug: thanks for all of your enthusiastic responses!  And thanks to Kate McKinnon for posting them, and loaning me the fine box they were roosting in, too!  All the owl whistle necklaces have found new homes &#8211; the owl/owl-craver ratio was excellent, and there was only a little disappointment.  If you&#8217;d [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/owl-whistle-necklaces</link>
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		<title>Postcard from Tucson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Three Star Owl is at the Tucson Bird and Wildlife Festival, at the Riverpark Inn just west of I-10 at the Congress Ave exit.  I&#8217;ll be here from 8 to 5 today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday 19-20 Aug).  Come by soon, things are finding new homes at a fast clip!
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/postcard-from-tucson</link>
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		<title>Blue moon month for Three Star Owl!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, it&#8217;s never happened before, but Three Star Owl has two sales events in southern Arizona in less than two weeks!
Frog skeleton creamer (approx 4&#8243; ht) &#62;&#62; 

Close on the heels of the Southwest Wings Festival, Three Star Owl will be at the first ever Tucson Audubon Society&#8217;s Tucson Bird and Wildlife Festival this week.  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/blue-moon-month-for-three-star-owl</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 11</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the eleventh installment of a series. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the twelfth installment.  Or, to read from the very beginning, click here. 
Previously:
“Our other on-going personnel matter,” Amit Chayes had explained about the sound of argument coming from the mess-tent.  “I take full responsibility. I should [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-11</link>
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		<title>A new Spot the Bird&#8230; kind of</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, it&#8217;s not actually a bird.  Perhaps these posts should be called &#8220;Not the Bird&#8221;. 
Here is an appropriately faded Old West-y snap shot of a neighbor of ours, taken with my cell phone.  Can you spot the non-avian subject?  It&#8217;s a Desert Iguana, posing with dignity as if for a Victorian formal portrait, lurking [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/a-new-spot-the-bird-kind-of</link>
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		<title>Fasten your seatbelts&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;.Three Star Owl is hitting the road!
For three days &#8212; Thursday, Friday and Saturday August 4, 5, and 6 2011, I&#8217;ll have a booth at the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival in Sierra Vista, AZ.
For more info about the festival, click HERE.
&#60;&#60; VLO (Very Large Owl) effigy and a couple of coati tails.

Special Note: [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/fasten-your-seatbelts</link>
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		<title>Another Potter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s a slightly arty image of an un-opened Potter Wasp nest on the front wall of our house, with a drawing pencil for scale.  Click here for more info on what these tiny clay pots are, and why the wasps build them.  One of these days, I hope to be in the right place in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/another-potter</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 10</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the tenth installment of a series. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the eleventh installment.  Or, to read from the very beginning, click here.
Dario’s inelegant complaint was not much to go on, and his mildly exotic accent was like a linguistic version of the ambiguous character on the potsherd [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-10</link>
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		<title>&#8220;You never know which foot is when&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[That&#8217;s the motto of The Pseudopod Waltz logo: 
Remember it! It&#8217;s your sign of quality Three Star Owl fiction (what &#8220;quality&#8221; I&#8217;ll leave up to the reader).  Up until this point, there are two illustrated, serialized stories in this space:
The Ganskopf Incident, which ran in eight short episodes and an epilogue, and is complete (or [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/you-never-know-which-foot-is-when</link>
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		<title>Haboob two</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Another dust storm rolled over Phoenix just before sunset tonight, thirteen days after the doozy that hit us earlier in the month.  The first I knew of that one it was already on top of the house, its swirling dust choking out any light that was left in the sky.  I saw amazing photos of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/haboob-two</link>
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		<title>Proof and everything&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;of convergent evolution.
 

(photo A.Shock)
For those like me who need facts and a story, this is a Palo Verde Root Borer Beetle (Derobrachus geminatus, adult, fully 3&#8243; long), posing for what I thought were post-mortem portraits this morning after I fished her out of the pool.  However, she was clearly heard to state &#8220;I&#8217;m not [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/proof-and-everything</link>
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		<title>Mess-o&#8217;-Owls (with a serious side-bar)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Update: if you&#8217;re looking at info on what areas are open for birding/touring in Southeastern Arizona as a result of the fires and floods, here&#8217;s a link to a useful and interesting July 19 2011 article in the Arizona Daily Star online: http://azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/article_ad90f282-df75-5c6e-b35b-2f80335577bc.html
&#8212;&#8211;
Last April at &#8220;Birdy Verde&#8221; (more properly known as the Verde Valley Birding [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/mess-o-owls-with-a-serious-side-bar</link>
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		<title>A small thing the rain brought out</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Other parts of the Phoenix area had been rained on already in this monsoon season, but so far our part of town only had dust.  Big dust, impressive dust, haboob-style wall of silty grit in your eyes, teeth and hair dust, but no rain.  At about four this morning, however, that changed with the slow [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/a-small-thing-the-rain-brought-out</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 9</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the ninth installment of a series. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the next installment.  Or, to read from the very beginning, click here. 
Previously:
Professor Einer Wayfarer wouldn&#8217;t be needing a ride back to Beer-Sheva right away: she&#8217;d found her &#8220;artifact with an accent&#8221; after all.
The Trenches
Once again, Einer [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-9</link>
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		<title>And now, some owls</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are some metal owls that roost on the cast iron stove in our den.

]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/close-in/and-now-some-owls</link>
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		<title>When it&#8217;s hot outside</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the last post I described how summer&#8217;s heat changes my creative routine.  The point was not to complain, or to display macho heat-tolerance (or lack of it), but to set up this post about one of the things I&#8217;ve recently begun to do during the parts of the day the clay studio isn&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/when-its-hot</link>
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		<title>Baked clay</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This time of year &#8212; for the next three or four months, in fact &#8212; my studio is hot.  Very hot.  Hotter than it is outside, by about five or six degrees, thanks to its translucent acrylic walls and ceiling.
To the right is the actual reading for Wednesday afternoon ( 106.7ºF = 41.50ºC = 314.65ºK) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/baked-clay</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 8</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the eighth installment of a series. There&#8217;s a link at the bottom of the page to the next installment.  Or, to read from the very beginning, click here. 
Previously:

The sleek, scented body that had slipped past her in the dark engaged Wayfarer&#8217;s academic curiosity: he was no one she&#8217;d seen yet on site. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-8</link>
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		<title>What luck!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning, I found a golden egg, high up in a tree.
Nestled into the rough bark of our backyard mesquite, a magical bird had laid a golden egg.  This was excellent: what a windfall! &#8212; my fortune was secured, if only I could reach it.
But it was too far over my head, so I had [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/birds/what-luck</link>
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		<title>Cucumbers don&#8217;t usually have scales</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#60;&#60; Here are my next-door neighbor&#8217;s cucumber plants, with a snake napping amidst them.  The neighbor noticed it when he was rummaging around in these leaves looking for cukes for dinner.  I happened to be in our backyard, and saw him and his wife standing just on the other side of our shared [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/cucumbers-dont-usually-have-scales</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 7</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the seventh installment of a series. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.  Or, click here to read from the very beginning. Previously: 
After getting nowhere with the stamped symbol on the broken piece of pottery, Professor Einer Wayfarer disappointingly proclaimed to the dig [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-7</link>
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		<title>Morning foraging strategies and their aftermath</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning my foraging strategy was to cook oat bran, spangle it with almonds, and sweeten it a little with agave nectar.  This left the sink full of dishes.  Someone else&#8217;s foraging strategy &#8212; a fox? a coyote? &#8212; was to dig out pocket mice burrows, hoping for some warm, moist, furry, squeaking protein.  This [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/morning-foraging-strategies-and-their-aftermath</link>
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		<title>Chinese opera mask bug (and bonus dubious chemical spotting)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Updated with possible bug ID, see bottom of post:
E sent me a photo he took of this brightly colored centimeter-long bug marching up the stone steps of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, China. Since there&#8217;s not much going on at home here in AZ, except ongoing wrestling with both the machinery and chemistry of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/field-trips/chinese-opera-mask-bug-and-bonus-dubious-chemical-spotting</link>
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		<title>My Cat Won&#8217;t Comply</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So what&#8217;s new?  Underpass art along Hwy 60 at Devil&#8217;s Canyon Bridge.
Other way to consider this issue: Is the cat amenable to Show Procedure?

Go ahead, click to enlarge. (Photo A or E Shock)
updated:
Wait, I didn&#8217;t think I would need to explain that this was found art, not made-by-me art.


]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/my-cat-wont-comply</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 6</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the sixth installment of a series. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.  Or, click here to read from the very beginning. Previously:
After the professor&#8217;s official and disappointing debunking of the Mystery Object, the staff and students began to move away. Only the undergraduate [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-6</link>
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		<title>The young spiny lizard&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;contemplates you.  Click to enlarge, twice if you can, for good spiny detail.  (Photo A.Shock, Devil&#8217;s Canyon)
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/the-young-spiny-lizard</link>
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		<title>Waxing gibbous with vultures</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This time of year, the local Turkey Vultures roost on the rocks and in the tall eucalypts&#8217; tops along Queen Creek.  By twilight they&#8217;ve called it a day, and have found their places, high overhead where they&#8217;ll be safe from most predators, dreaming of whatever odiferous carnage vultures dream of.  Unlike most hawks, many vultures [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/waxing-gibbous-with-vultures</link>
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		<title>Boojum moon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;In the dark was a boojum, you see,&#8221; to paraphrase Lewis Carroll.

The javelinas, bats, and skunks get to see it like this all the time. But before last friday night, I&#8217;d never seen a boojum in the moonlight. 
Turns out waxing gibbous is a good look for the strange tree.
(Boojum, Fouquieria columnaris, or cirio in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/boojum-moon</link>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t worry, this post is NOT titled&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230; &#8220;Don&#8217;t take this frog for granite&#8221;
I never can resist posting Canyon treefrogs (Hyla arenicolor), those most toadly of frogs.
 This one was sunning itself on a rock this morning, looking quite like its substrate, the granite of Devil&#8217;s Canyon.  As we canvassed birds along Queen Creek for North American Migratory Bird Count, we [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/dont-worry-this-post-is-not-titled</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 5</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the fifth installment of a series. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.  Or, click here to read from the very beginning. Previously: 
On the underside of the handle the mirror reflected a small textured mark pressed into the clay: a geometric, elemental symbol [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-5</link>
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		<title>Migratory cephalopods&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;and other creatures of shift and change.
The day began with a coyote, and an oriole.  The coyote we encountered in front of our house, at the start of our early morning walk toward the neaby desert park.  It was on its end of the day commute &#8212; on the way from our street [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/migratory-cephalopods</link>
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		<title>It was all fun and games till the alligator showed up&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, not actually an alligator, but a beautiful spiny lizard.   As we were packing up, we found him snoozing in a sheltered nook under my table foot at Birdy Verde.  The event is in a huge tent set up in a field, and they put a carpet down over the dirt &#8212; this [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/it-was-all-fun-and-games-till-the-alligator-showed-up</link>
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		<title>Three Star Owl in Dead Horse Ranch</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s time for the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival, and Three Star Owl will be there in the big white tent, along with other vendors and exhibitors Thursday 28 April until Sunday 1 May, 9 &#8211; 5 Thu-Sat, 9 &#8211; 1 Sun.  Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, AZ.

Come on by and see what&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/three-star-owl-in-dead-horse-ranch</link>
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		<title>New out of the box</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Though the lady bug life cycle has been covered here before, I can&#8217;t resist posting this photo of a brand new Lady Bird Beetle and its recently exited pupal casing.
>> the bug and the box it came in.  Click to enlarge, it&#8217;s a nice big file (photo A.Shock).

Just a couple of days ago, I&#8217;d [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/new-out-of-the-box</link>
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		<title>The Hidden Egg</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This time of year the world is pregnant with nests full of eggs, tiny cottontails hopping and hiding in the yard, fledgling birds following their parents food-begging insistently, new yellow-green leaves and catkins on the mesquite trees, and glorious cactus blooms.
&#60;&#60; Praying mantis egg-case on a Palo Verde twig (photo E.Shock).  &#62;&#62; close-up of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/the-hidden-egg</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 4</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the fourth installment of a series. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.  Or, click here to read from the very beginning. Previously: 
Wayfarer was warming to her subject, the possible unsecured antiquity.  “So you might say that we&#8217;re looking for an object [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-4</link>
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		<title>Spot the Bird answer: rock and wren</title>
		<description><![CDATA[To the right is the photo key to the Rock wren of the current Spot the Bird.  Rock wrens rock one of my favorite Latin names in the bird world (along with Upupa epops, the hoopoe): Salpinctes obsoletus.  According to Choate, the name comes from Greek salpinctes, &#8220;a trumpeter&#8221; and Latin obsoletus, &#8220;indistinct&#8221;, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/spot-the-bird-answer-rock-and-wren</link>
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		<title>Wild hogs in the desert&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;.but not the quadrupedal kind.
One of the main attractions of following the Castle Hotsprings Road through the edge of the Buckhorn Mountains NW of Phoenix is the spring wildflower bloom.  This past weekend the succulent plants predominated: Ocotillos were in full swing, and the prickly pear were starting to get the hang of it.

It [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/wild-hogs-in-the-desert</link>
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		<title>Wild burro</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This past Saturday, E and I took a Sunday drive.  We got out into the desert, to look for things. Normally, April is a good time of year for wildflowers, but due to the late freezes this year&#8217;s show is a bit sporadic &#8212; some things, like the Paloverde trees, are spectacular.  All over the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/field-trips/wild-burro</link>
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		<title>Spot the Bird: rock and wren</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been a while since we&#8217;ve had a SPOT THE BIRD.
Rock wrens, Salpinctes obsoletus, live among rocks in the arid mountain and desert west.  Here are some rocks.  These rocks are along the Castle Hotsprings Road between Phoenix and Wickenburg, AZ.  There is a Rock wren in these rocks.  If you could hear the wren, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/spot-the-bird-rock-and-wren</link>
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		<title>Owl? What owl?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday an MLO (Medium Large Owl) emerged fresh from the kiln, all mute greens and golds, looking wind-blown and content.  I&#8217;d built this owl outside on the back porch, in a plein-air studio annex location during our in-between-not-too-hot-not-too-cold season, and I put it back outside to save indoor shelf space. Anything on the porch is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/owl-what-owl</link>
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		<title>What happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 3</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the third installment of a series. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.  Or, click here to read from the very beginning. Previously:
“There&#8217;s half an hour until dinner. Would you like to see the object now?” After coming halfway around the world on short [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-3</link>
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		<title>Heretofore missing eggs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last fall our herb garden hosted a successful crop of parsley, cilantro, and Lady bird beetles (AKA Lady bugs).  But we only noticed the bounty of bugs when we found roving hordes of hungry beetle larvæ voraciously devouring hapless aphids.  Pictures of the process of larval metamorphosis were captured  and posted here, but all the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/heretofore-missing-eggs</link>
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		<title>Just a reminder from Three Star Owl</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ I wrote the following promo last month and then promptly forgot all about it in my Wordpress &#8220;drafts&#8221;.  So, here it is, to be used as a reminder that the exhibition is almost over:

   Allison Shock/Three Star Owl is pleased to debut the new piece &#8220;Assemblage: Owl Hives&#8221; at the Arizona [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/just-a-reminder-from-three-star-owl</link>
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		<title>A Little the worse for wear</title>
		<description><![CDATA[They don&#8217;t all make it.  E found a dead fledgling hummingbird in the path across the wash, under the palo verde tree. It was dried, mummified, an inoffensive inanimate thing, not even worth the ants picking over.  We buried it under a nearby chuparosa, a favored food of hummers.  (Photos E.Shock)
Top: detail of foot, with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/a-little-the-worse-for-wear</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 2</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
This is the second installment of the series, click on the link at the bottom of this page to continue to the next installment.   Or, click here to start reading from the very beginning.  Previously:

Wilson A. Rankle waved a hand to indicate they should follow the goat track back down to camp. “Well, it’s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-2</link>
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		<title>Where are the Owl Hives?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Owl Hives are in Chandler.
On Friday night, March 18, the All AZ Clay Invitational Exhibition opened at the Chandler Center for the Arts, displaying the work of more than 40 clay artists from all over the state of Arizona.  Among them is an installation of artefaux by me, entitled Assemblage: Owl Hives.
&#62;&#62; Assemblage: Owl [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/where-are-the-owl-hives</link>
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		<title>Another Three Star Owl Studio Tour</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s not every day a big red tour coach pulls up in front of the house to let people off.
Recently an opportunity came my way to take part in a tour series run jointly by Ultimate Art and Cultural Tours and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  The event is the Behind the Scenes Artist [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/another-three-star-owl-studio-tour</link>
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		<title>Hen Triumphant!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve been watching a hummingbird Hen &#8212; we think she&#8217;s an Anna&#8217;s (Calypte anna) &#8212; on a nest since the middle of February.  Lots of people have passed close to her chosen spot, which was fairly low in a crooked Aleppo pine in our backyard, right over a gravel path through the side of the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/hen-triumphant</link>
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		<title>What Happened at Beit Bat Ya&#8217;anah: part 1</title>
		<description><![CDATA[(Remember, for guaranteed fiction, look for the Pseudopod Waltz logo: &#8220;You Never Know Which Foot Is When.&#8221;)

This is the first installment of a series. The events take place many years before the “Ganskopf Incident”. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to continue to the next installment.

Wayfarer Arrives:
Deep in the Negev Desert, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/art/what-happened-at-beit-bat-yaanah-part-1</link>
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		<title>Three Star Owl, Updated events</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For those of you who follow Three Star Owl clay studio, I&#8217;ve just updated the Events page &#8212; it had been neglected, I&#8217;m sorry to say &#8212; to reflect upcoming shows and sales. I announce them here, but the Events page (click on Events tab on the bar at the top of this page) will [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/three-star-owl-updated-events</link>
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		<title>San Diego is a wrap!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s cheers to all of the Three Star Owl friends and clients who came by, old and new (nice to meet you, Doriot!), to the San Diego Bird Festival this weekend.  And many thanks to Karen Straus and the volunteers and organizers of the San Diego Audubon Society for all of their good care and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/san-diego-is-a-wrap</link>
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		<title>Oh say can you KIK&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;by the dawnzerly light?
&#60;&#60; Here&#8217;s one of the local Cooper&#8217;s hawks preening in the pre-dawn light above my tent &#8220;office&#8221;.  Every morning at EXACTLY 5:48 by the alarm clock, the pair begins their day by skrekking KIK a couple of solo kiks, then rolling out a long stream of duo kik kik kik kik kik [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/oh-say-can-you-kik</link>
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		<title>The delights of urban camping</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is the Office, Three Star Owl&#8217;s nest away from nest on certain roadtrips, complete with cot and a TV tray table that serves as a desk, and a battery-powered lamp or two. &#60;&#60;

And here is the Cooper&#8217;s hawk who nests here each time I&#8217;ve stayed in this RV Resort.  It&#8217;s eating something fairly large, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/the-delights-of-urban-camping</link>
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		<title>Damn that Dove!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Talk about a bull in a china shop.  It could have been much worse, but still&#8230;
Just after the Three Star Owl Open Studio/Camelback Studio Tour came to an end, and I&#8217;d put all the remaining wares onto my studio worktables to await packing for the imminent San Diego Bird Festival trip, a big stupid dove [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/damn-that-dove</link>
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		<title>There will be owls&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;among other things.
Tomorrow, Friday, is the first day of Three Star Owl&#8217;s Open Studio, part of the Camelback Studio Tour.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful, but the meteorologists have less lovely predictions for Saturday and Sunday.  We&#8217;ll see.  Rain or shine, wind or calm, I&#8217;ll be here from 10 &#8211; 5 waiting for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/there-will-be-owls</link>
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		<title>Christchurch Cathedral before the quake</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Just under two years ago, we were in Christchurch New Zealand, finishing up our month-long tour of both islands.   We had turned in our campervan, and spent a night or two in the city before flying back to Aukland and then home to Arizona.  It was early winter, later in the season [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/field-trips/christchurch-cathedral-before-the-quake</link>
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		<title>Open studio at Three Star Owl!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Three Star Owl is proud to be part of the South Scottsdale Art Alliance&#8217;s Camelback Studio Tour next Friday Saturday and Sunday, 25, 26, 27 Feb, from 10am &#8211; 5pm, and you&#8217;re invited!


&#60;&#60; detail, Greenish Beastie Pitcher, breast &#8220;plumage&#8221;
Several homes in the &#8220;we could have been but we voted not to be&#8221; historic neighborhood of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/open-studio-at-three-star-owl</link>
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		<title>I know where the Hen she sits&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;and also why it&#8217;s called &#8220;Broad-billed&#8221;.
Although those two statements concern two different birds.
Update: as of Friday morning, &#8220;Bill&#8221;, the Broad-billed hummingbird, is still reporting in to our backyard feeders, passing the 72-hour mark (I first observed him on Monday afternoon).  We guess he&#8217;ll be here until he&#8217;s not!
Breeding season for Anna&#8217;s hummers is in full [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/i-know-where-the-hen-she-sits</link>
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		<title>Lousy pix but exciting bird!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Another update: going onto day three of &#8220;Bill&#8221; at the feeder.
Update: as of Tuesday late afternoon, the BBLH is still at our feeder, defending it against the local Anna&#8217;s hummers, happily zipping about under the pine and between our yard and the neighbor&#8217;s.
A series of rapid, smacking clicks and a rich chip caught my ear [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/lousy-pix-but-exciting-bird</link>
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		<title>The Beastly Details</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Beasties are coming!
Here is a close-up of the finished surfaces of the same Beastie Pitchers shown in raw clay a couple of posts ago.  They, and other functional and sculptural ware, will be offered for sale at the upcoming Three Star Owl Open Studio, coming toward the end of this month!  Stay tuned for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/the-beastly-details</link>
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		<title>An ill-timed Winter cold sets in&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230; I mean in the air, and in my lungs, too.  When not pathetically curled up in bed with Bronte novels on the iPad (well, Jane Eyre,  at any rate, not Wuthering Heights; I remember finding Heathcliff a bit tiresome, although I may give him another try since it&#8217;s been so long), all [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/yard-list/an-ill-timed-winter-cold-sets-in</link>
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		<title>Beasties in the Raw</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s the Return of the Beastie Pitcher!  For those of you familiar with Three Star Owl &#8220;Beastie Ware&#8221; &#8212; functional clayware that looks like it might nip your fingers, or wrestle the napkin holder to the ground &#8212; here&#8217;s a march of the beastie pitchers: three in-progress, highly textured pitchers in various stages of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/events/beasties-in-the-raw</link>
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		<title>The key is the beak</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A while back, I posted the latest Spot the Bird, a shot of a Mexican wetland that contained hard-to-see birds.  It was a tough one.

Here&#8217;s the key.  The hidden birds are three Black-bellied whistling ducks, visible in the sea of green only by looking carefully for their bright coral-red bills, a tag of chestnut plumage, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/the-key-is-the-beak</link>
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		<title>The Year&#8217;s First New Bird</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last post was the New Year&#8217;s first bird &#8212; a frosty Costa&#8217;s hummingbird &#8212; but this one is the Year&#8217;s First New Bird, and it&#8217;s a hummer, too.
We just returned from Baja California, and in the mission village of San Javier on the dramatic east side of the Sierra de la Giganta in Baja California [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/the-years-first-new-bird</link>
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		<title>New Year&#8217;s first bird</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#62;&#62; A durable little male Costa&#8217;s hummingbird, perched two feet off the ground on an aloe-tip, in the gray light of a below-freezing desert dawn, the first morning of the year also the coldest of the season so far.  (All photos A.Shock &#8212; click to enlarge!)
Moustachios a-flarin&#8217; &#62;&#62;
Above: slurping at the feeder:
It&#8217;s surprising how [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/new-years-first-bird</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Happy New Year&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;from the Holiday Otter and his Magical Hose of Joy.

]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/unnatural-history/happy-new-year</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Spot the Bird: bright beak gray cheek</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In celebration of my friend Kate seeing Black-bellied whistling ducks in New Orleans, here is a Black-bellied whistling duck Spot the Bird.
The photo was taken in a coastal wetland in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, in Ocotber of 2008.  I was scanning the greenery with binx when I spotted the ducks &#8212; I suspect [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/natural-history/spot-the-bird-bright-beak-gray-cheek</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Yule mule deer</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s not a reindeer, and it doesn&#8217;t have a red nose.  But, a yule mule deer licking its nose with a pink tongue is as close as I could get&#8230;
 
Here&#8217;s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas anyhow!

 
(Muledeer in Hualapai Mountains, AZ; photo by E.Shock)
]]></description>
		<link>http://threestarowl.com/close-in/yule-mule-deer</link>
			</item>
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