YouTube Video Channel Comments … Or Lack Thereof Allowed on Birding Videos

Year 12

In a recent post a visitor to both my YouTube Channel and this web site asked a very reasonable question:

“Why don’t you (i.e me) allow comments on your YouTube Channel?”

This is an EXTREMELY reasonable question. Here was my answer, and how it pertains to protecting children …

That is a great question. I do not allow comments on my YouTube Channel because I have personally certified to Google / YouTube that my channel is “child friendly”. Google in turn does not then allow comments on such a “certified channel” because unfortunately there are some nasty people in this world who write bad stuff. My YouTube channel is found via many “child friendly’ search engines. In addition I allow free downloads of my owl children’s books from my web site, and my images are utilized in various elementary text books. Hopefully you see the pattern of my actions. I wish I could allow comments via YouTube, but Unfortunately our world is not perfect.

Following up on the same frame of thought … notice how I do NOT take advertising, sponsors or any kind of pay for this web site. It has been my pleasure over the past 12 years to serve up safe, not commercial content about birding … and thus it shall continue. I am a FAILURE as a paid influencer!

Return to Greenwood!

Year 12

While Ireland was fun, there is no place like home! As I compose this post, Amy is hooting nonstop outside my office window. It’s 6:15 am, and I have learned she now hoots most pre-dawn days about an hour before sunrise.

As noted in my blog post title, yesterday was my “Return to Greenwood”. It had been 2.5 weeks since my last hike into the boreal forest at Greenwood to swap out trailcam simm cards and learn what wildlife is “hanging out”. Oh my, while the number of moose videos are crazy cool (some provided below with up to 4 moose in a single video clip … bulls and cows. My trailcams also captured on camera:

  • Bear
  • Canada Lynx
  • Red fox
  • Timber wolves (including my white wolf!)

Here are some promised Moose Videos. One highlight is that I now have sound enabled, which means I am also bringing you the sounds of the forest!

In the first two videos … listen to the cow moose which is just off camera. In the second clip it is obvious her sounds and scent attracted a large bull moose within two hours. In the final three videos you will see four moose, including the bull moose. I believe these are the same four moose in all five videos.

  • Video Link 1 for blog email subscribers (cow moose sounds)
  • Video Link 2 for blog email subscribers (bull moose appears two hours later)
  • Video Link 3 for blog email subscribers (entire moose family … four moose)
  • Video Link 4 for blog email subscribers (entire moose family … four moose)
  • Video Link 5 for blog email subscribers (entire moose family … four moose)

Just in case you thought this blog had become 365 Days of Moose, here are some spruce grouse photographs I took near Greenwood yesterday morning. I had the definite impression this male was aware a female grouse was near by, but it took me almost ten minutes to find her.

Emerald Isle to Emerald Isles Aurora via UAL!

Year 12,

According to United Airlines I was flying over Greenlands’ Graah Fjord last night (Wikipedia Link) as I composed most of this post (content edited and expanded the next day before publishing). All I know is United Airlines service was superb on UAL Flight 981 from Dublin to Chicago (and then on to Duluth). My thanks to Flight Attendant Beth who took this image of me working on my wildlife photographs while I was flying home over the north Atlantic. Molly if flying on to a Greek Island to enjoy some time with a friend for her “70th birthday treat”.

For Molly’s birthday treat, we decided to treat ourselves travel first class for the first time in our 42 years of marriage. It was definitely a very enjoyable way to edit images, and then send pics to all our kids and their spouses noting how how were spending their inheritance! Okay … back to what you subscribe to me for … birds and wildlife. The images accompanying this post were edited on a Boeing 787 flying at 547 mph up at 37,000 feet with Prince Christian Sound of Greenland off to my right.

Eurasian Oystercatcher

European Stonechat

Oh yes … this post title mentions “from the Emerald Isle to the Emerald Isles” and something about the Northern Lights. I arrived home at my house in Duluth by 7 pm, and was in bed by 7:45 pm having been awake for almost 24 hours straight. Given the six hour time difference I woke up at 1 am local … wide awake. Within a few minutes I heard my local owls hooting outside the house. Of course I decided to go out on the deck in the middle of the night (couldn’t sleep given the 6 hour time change) to better listen to Amy (the female Great Horned Owl). I then realized the Aurora Borealis was popping. Twenty minutes later I was in my car driving 35 minutes to Boulder Lake … to watch Lady Aurora dance above the “Emerald Isles”. Life is good!