The African Harrier Hawk has always intrigued me because it is such an unusual raptor, though I do prefer its previous more exotic name, Gymnogene,which means bare cheeks. It has the legs of a harrier and flies like a hawk. Although not threatened, you will not often see this species but it is a thrill when you do because it is such an impressive raptor. It has distinctive colouring, is relatively large and has some unique behavioural traits.

“Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.”
~ Charles Baudelaire

Generally, hawks kill their prey with their claws, unlike the falcons, which catch prey with the claws but kill with a blow of their beak. Hawks are unusual among birds in that the female is generally larger than her mate. In some species, this difference, called sexual dimorphism, can be as great with the female being much larger than the males, as in the accipiters. This is particularly evident in Fish Eagles. Hawks generally mate for life, and are agressively territorial. Harriers are plain-looking, long-legged, and long-tailed birds with a slender build which enables them to cruise low over grasslands and marshes looking for prey. Harriers usually have small beaks, and their face feathers are arranged in facial discs. The African Harrier Hawk has a clear a mix of both harrier and hawk characteristics, hence its name.

This is a medium to large raptor. It can grow to around 63cm in length with a wing span of 160cm and can weigh up to 950 grams. There is little colour dimorphism between male and female but as with hawks, the female is larger.

African Harrier Hawks are recognised by other birds as nest raiders. When seen in the area, other birds become very vocal warning each other of an impending invasion.  

“Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
~ Terry Tempest Williams

The African Harrier-Hawk is omnivorous, eating anything its can find from fruit to small birds and mammals, reptiles and insects. Its ability to climb, using wings as well as feet, and its long double-jointed legs, enable this bird to raid the nests of cavity-nesters such as barbets, oxpeckers, squirrels and woodhoopoes for eggs and fledglings. This raptor is notable for its habit of actively searching for prey in trees, nests, rock faces, and from underneath objects on the ground. It can often be seen clambering about and hanging from tree limbs, running up tree trunks with wings flapping, or hanging from birds nests as it searches for food. Its featherless legs facilitate this behaviour.

‘There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”

~Francis Bacon

The plumage is mainly grey, with neat light black and white barring on the abdomen and thighs, but is sometimes absent in individuals. The African Harrier Hawk has a bare facial patch, which is varies in colour, but is usually seen as bright yellow. This facial patch becomes pink during display, and various shades of orange between yellow and red according to its emotional state. 

This particular character was wandering along the bank of the Chobe river looking for a spot to drink. No doubt these raptors are also very wary of the danger lurking below the surface of the water.

The relatively low aspect ratio of the wing allows this raptor to fly surprisingly slowly and deliberately, for such as large raptor, when hunting. A low aspect ratio wing has relatively low ratio of wing length to wing width. Generally, high aspect ratio wings give more lift and enable sustained, endurance flight, while low aspect ratio wings are best for swift maneuverability.

The male and female African Harrier-hawks are similar in appearance, while juveniles have brown plumage, blackish facial skin, a brown tail with four darker brown bars, and variable amounts of whitish, reddish-brown or dark bars or streaks on the abdomen. Adult plumage is not attained until about the third year.

“We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honour him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.”
~ Hermann Hesse

This particular character was raiding birds nests in a dead tree trunk. What makes it so unusual is its adaptive flexible knee-joints, being double jointed, enables it to put its feet into hard to get at places. It can probes crevices and hollows for lizards and larvae. It will hang upside down on hanging bird nests to rob their eggs and chicks. You will often see this raptor  walking along branches and up tree trunks, with wings widespread to stabilize it. 

The previous image was of a relative young bird just before its adult moult. We came across this bird one afternoon on the Chobe River. It was busy pillaging a bird’s nest and pulling out the oxpecker chicks one by one and eating them. 

““Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
~ Terry Tempest Williams

These raptors although relatively large, with lethal armaments, do not get things all their own way. The birds which usually nest in the surrounding trees can get quite aggressive and persistent. The next image is of a Fork-tailed Drongo giving this harrier Hawk a “rev”.  At times these small attackers land on the flying host and peck at it.

The African Harrier Hawk is an agile flier, capable of soaring in thermals but also mixing it up in woodland savanna and being able, like a Sparrowhawk, to negotiate its way through trees and branches. It is also an excellent tree climber.

Fork-tailed Drongos, rollers, lapwings all give these raptors a good going over whenever possible and obviously always on the wing.

The next image shows a African Harrier Hawk gliding along the river bank with its primary feather testing the wind like fingers. Its pinkish facial skin is signalling its relative state of excitement. This is also seen in Bateleur Eagles which also have yellowish facial skin that changes from yellow to red depending on its level of excitement. When flying, the underside of the African Harrier-hawk’s wings are grey with a wide black trailing edge. It has a white band across its tail feathers and the trailing edge of those feathers also have a wide black tip.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid”

~Albert Einstein

When you see an African Harrier Hawk patrolling the banks of the Chobe river, it is often getting mobbed by smaller birds. This raptor is a major threat to birds which nest in trees and cavities in trees and rocks. When defending their nest and chicks, size seems to be less important. Small birds like Fork-tailed Drongos will fly up and dive bomb the raptor often hitting it on the back or wing. They will undertake remarkably daring attacks to drive this threat away from their nesting sites. The defensive attacks are usually from the back as the front end is considerably more dangerous.

The defensive antics of these smaller nesters can be dramatic to watch employing fearless manoeuvres in their quest to drive the potential raider out of the area.

If the threat is severe enough both members of the protection squad will join in the harassing process.

Although the African Harrier-hawk is lethally armed, in nature it is seldom a one way street.

“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I have not previously done a post on rhino, but have been privileged to have a number of sightings.  My most intimate sighting and interaction with a black Rhino was in 1962. It was over a few months in a suburb of  the then Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe. The black rhino was a young calf called Rupert, named after Rupert Fothergill. Rupert the rhino calf was being looked after by the Condy family.

“Behind us are memories, beside us are friends, before us are dreams.”

~Unknown

Rupert Fothergill led Operation Noah, which was a wildlife rescue operation on the Zambezi river. John Condy was a wildlife vet and part of a team involved in the extraordinary translocation project to save wildlife from the rising waters of the newly formed Kariba dam. This rescue operation lasted from 1958 to 1964. Black Rhino were among the vast array of wildlife saved. On one particular occasion, a female Black Rhino was darted with a tranquilizer. In those days the doses were experimental and very much an estimation.  After being darted, the female dashed for the water and collapsed in the shallows. The rescuers could not raise her out of the water and she drowned. Only afterwards did the rescuers realise that she had a newborn calf. Needless to say John Condy took the rhino calf back to Salisbury to look after it. In the six months or so that Rupert lived in the Condy home he became part of the family.

“Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke.”
~ Julian Barnes

Rupert arrived in the Condy household as a very young 150lb calf and was relocated to Matopos Nature Reserve about six months later weighing around 500lbs. The idea was never to keep Rupert but rather to nuture him  until he was big enough to be reintroduced into the wild  and habituate him with another black rhino called Sal.

“I can still feel the tingle of excitement knowing Rupert was racing this way from the other side of the house. A game of chicken with that almost breathless excitement waiting to catch the first glimpse of him and jump into a bush or race up a tree to get out of his reach. What ever the cost you did not want him to give you a ‘lamey’ with that little horn.”

~Mike Haworth

As a result, my interest in black Rhino started when I was very young. It is remarkable to think that these mammals have survived for 50 million years and gangs of human beings have been making a concerted effort to eliminate them within the last 40 years. According to Rhino Org, at the turn of the 20th century there were an estimated 500,000 rhino on earth, and by 1970 the worldwide population had fallen to 70,000. Save The Rhino published a graphic which shows the current estimated population of the five remaining species of rhino.

Source: Save The Rhino

https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures

What is even more astounding is that the rhino population has been decimated not for for its food value, but for its horn. The rhino is usually shot and the horn hacked off leaving the carcass and in many cases leaving a mortally wounded animal alive.

The name “Rhinoceros” is derived from the Ancient Greek “ῥῑνόκερως”, meaning “horn nose”.

The Black Rhino is physically distinctly different to the White Rhino. It is smaller, weighing between 900kg and 1350kg. It is a browser, using its prehensile upper lip to shred leaves off branches and shrubs. The White Rhino is much larger, has a square lip and is primarily a grazer.

Much of what we believe about rhino eyesight is based on anecdotal reports. The assumption is that black rhinos are nearsighted, making them unable to discern man and a tree even 20 meters away. There doesn’t appear to be any empirical evidence to support this assertion. Rather it is a convenient and plausable explanation for the species’ sometimes aggressive behavior towards humans.  A recent anatomical study of the black rhino’s retina at an Australian university suggests that the human form should be detectable at nearly 200 meters – 10 times the distance assumed. All four Rhino species have eyes that are much smaller than would be predicted based solely upon body size, as reported in a post on 13 October 2013 on The International Rhino Foundation blog, which seems to add to the suggestion around their poor sight. Rhinos are known for their keen sense of smell and hearing.

This particular Black Rhino was drinking at a waterhole and must have heard something behind it and spun around to sense to get a better sense of where and what its was.

That ancient face and the characteristic prehensile top lip are distinctive features of the Black Rhino.

The next image show a mother and calf – which must have been over a year old. Black Rhino are usually solitary but a Black Rhino mother will nurture and protect her calf for between two and four years before pushing it out on its own. Very young calves are often positioned in front of their mother for protection as their most vulnerable part is their backside.

This female Black Rhino approached our vehicle after having sated her thirst at a waterhole. For a few moments, we thought this  female was going to give us a charge but satisfied she knew what we were, she quietly strolled past us without incident.

One particular afternoon, after initially chasing the male away, this female allowed her calf to interact with the male Black Rhino – probably its father. The tenderness was something special, and not expected at all.

The two adults began to rub their horns together after a tentative approach.

The family bond is clear. I never realised that Black Rhino behaved in this way. I knew they gathered at night around waterholes but never like this. The mother of a calf is not likely to mate with a male until her calf has become independent. This sometimes results in aggression on the part of the male, who wants to rid her of her calf so that he can mate with her. Many calves have been killed by aggressive males for this very reason.

Young Black Rhino – hard to believe that someone would want to kill this animal for its horn.

Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating the leaves of trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. In the more arid areas, Black Rhino are known to eat Euphorbia, which are poisonous to most other animals.

Both species of Rhino have ears with a relatively wide rotational range to detect the direction of sounds. An excellent sense of smell alerts rhinos to the presence of predators.

“As dreams are the healing songs from the wilderness of our unconscious- so wild animals, wild plants, wild landscapes are the healing dreams from the deep singing wild of the earth.”

~Dale Pendell

This solitary character came down to the waterhole just to drink. We were hoping for a roll in some mud but there was a little too much activity around the waterhole.

As you can see from the water marks on her legs that she walked right into the water. We thought she might lie down in the water to cool down but having had a drink she just wandered off.

As you can see this Black Rhino was not fussed about a lone hyaena behind it. These rhino can spin around remarkably quickly and the hyaena probably knew it.

A male Black Rhino in prime condition.

This male must have been able to see us across the waterhole because the prevailing wind was into our faces. and we were not making a noise.

The game park vets usually notch the ears of rhinos to identify them.

“Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth.”

~ Stewart Udall
Late afternoon gathering at the pool!!

The folds in a black rhino’s neck and legs are very evident. According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust  website (https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/companions.html), most rhinos have lesions behind the shoulders and under the chin and stomach. These obviously itch and irritate, because they are rubbed against rocks and trees until they become open weeping wounds that stubbornly resist healing. The culprit for these lesions is apparently a filarial worm that is specific to rhinos in Africa, but is known amongst horses in the far East.

All rhino species have three toes, and each toe has a large stout toenail, giving it a distinctive footprint. The front feet are bigger than the back feet. Black rhino can move surprisingly fast, up to speeds of around 50km/h- faster than you can run. They can change direction surprisingly quickly, and are known to run right through scrub and bushes. They attack with very swift upward swipes of their horn which can easily penetrate a vehicle door. It also means you need to get high enough up that thorn tree to get out of the way of that horn swipe.

I cannot publish a post on Black Rhino without giving some information about their decimation through poaching. The poaching stats do not separate out the black and white rhino poached. Over the past several years, South Africa’s rhino poaching problem has turned into a full-blown crisis. Save the Rhino organisation reports that South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is a vital country for rhino conservation. However rhino poaching levels have dramatically escalated over recent years as shown in the next graphic.

Source: Save The Rhino website, Department of Environmental Affairs, South African Government

This Black Rhino bull was found wandering Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy after poachers shot it several times and hacked off both horns. Veterinarians euthanized the animal because its shattered shoulder could no longer support its weight. Photograph by Brent Stirton/National Geographic

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG). By the end of 2015, the number of African rhinos killed by poachers had increased for the sixth year in a row with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015. In 2015 in South Africa, 1175 rhinos were poached, slightly below the 1,250 illegally killed in 2014. Around 65% of rhino are poached in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and the rest across all of SA’s provinces.

Significant efforts are being made to protect these mammals and the efforts are starting to pay off with 1054 rhino poached in 2016 according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. This represents the second year of declining rhino deaths from poaching. A total of 1 054 rhino were poached in 2016, compared to 1 175 in the same period for 2015, representing a decline of 10.3%. Specifically for the KNP, a total of 662 rhino carcasses were found in 2016 compared to 826 in 2015. This represents a reduction of 19.85% in 2016. This is despite a continued increase in the number of illegal incursions into the Kruger National Park. The Minister said for 2016 there were a staggering 2883 instances of unrelenting poaching-related activities (such as poaching camps, contacts, crossings, sightings, tracks and shots fired) in the Kruger National Park, compared to 2 466 recorded in the same period in 2015, an increase of 16.9%. According to the Minister’s Feb-2017 report,  although there has been a decrease in the number of rhino killed for their horns in the Kruger National Park and Mpumalanga, the number of rhino poached unfortunately increased in some other provinces and Elephant are being increasingly targeted by Poachers.

“The unending slaughter of Africa’s endangered wildlife is amputating a balancing branch of humanity. Unless the world’s political elite establishes universal, thought provoking legislation and enforcement thereof, species on the brink of extinction will be lost for future generations. In particular, China and Africa stand at the cusp of the most historic leadership embarrassment of civilization.”

~ Dex Kotze, Strategist for Global March for Elephants and Rhinos

The Ministry of Environmental Affairs also reported that during September 2016, a rhino survey using the scientifically accepted block count method recorded that a total of 6 649 – 7 830 white rhino lived in KNP. This is lower than the 8 365 – 9 337 that lived in the KNP during 2015. It must be noted that the natural deaths of white rhino increased due to the unprecedented drought conditions. A total of 349 – 465 black rhino lived in KNP in 2016 compared to 313 – 453 in 2015. The drought effect was not as noticeable on the black rhinos.

“I am so impressed by the courage and dedications of the rangers who, every day, risk their lives to protect elephants and rhinos. It is so important that we make the rangers feel that they area valued”.

~ Dr Jane Goodall.

According to the Project Rhino KZN’s website,  KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rhino poaching losses reach 73 this year (17 more than this time last year) – with provincial parks currently experiencing the heaviest losses – it’s a big boost to know that KZN’s Provincial Government have committed themselves to intensifying the fight against rhino poaching in KwaZulu-Natal.

I salute the tireless efforts of the rangers out in the bush fighting a deadly war against organised heavily armed poaching gangs.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6557/0

IUCN Red List Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:	Critically Endangered A2abcd ver 3.1
Year Published:	2012
Date Assessed:	2011-08-06
Assessor(s):	Emslie, R.
Reviewer(s):	Knight, M.H. & Adcock , K.
Justification: Listed as Critically Endangered as the population of Black Rhino has declined by an estimated 97.6% since 1960 with numbers bottoming out at 2,410 in 1995, mainly as a result of poaching. Since then, numbers have been steadily increasing at a continental level with numbers doubling to 4,880 by the end of 2010. Current numbers are however still 90% lower than three generations ago.
Previously published Red List assessments:	2011 – Critically Endangered (CR) 2008 – Critically Endangered (CR) 2003 – Critically Endangered (CR) 2002 – Critically Endangered (CR) 1996 – Critically Endangered (CR) 1994 – Endangered (E) 1990 – Endangered (E) 1988 – Endangered (E) 1986 – Endangered (E) 1965 –

We need to protect our wildlife so that our children are able to experience the wonders of mother nature’s diversity and inter-connectedness.

“We have to stop the blood flow. We have to be relentless in our pursuit for justice; in our pursuit for humanity. Nature is the mother of us all, and within all of us is the spirit of an eco warrior. The war on poaching is a war on greed, but what stands to be lost is priceless”.

~ Jamie Joseph- Saving the Wild founder

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I have not got a photographic trip planned for the next six weeks so I have decided to do a series of posts on a few species which have caught my imagination.

“Life is just so interesting and complicated and beautiful. Every day, every interaction is different. There’s so much floating around that I would find it really hard to get bored. I’m interested in creating in some way or another, whether it’s photography or writing or just walking through the world.”
~ Alejandro Escovedo

This week I have focused on the African Hawk-Eagle. We find two species of hawk-eagle in southern Africa, the African Hawk-Eagle and the Ayres Hawk-Eagle. The African Hawk-Eagle is resident  and territorial and is found from sub-Sahara to South Africa, while the Ayres Hawk Eagle is an intra-African migrant. The only time I have ever seen an Ayres Hawk Eagle was with my long- standing friend, Adrian Lombard, when we were driving up to his parents farm in Inyanga in the eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe back in the 1960s.

You will usually find this hawk-eagle in woodland and savanna areas, not at high altitudes and dense forest areas.

This raptor first caught my imagination when I was around 10 years of age. Multi-generational family friends, the Condys, always had a wild life menagerie in and around their home in then Salisbury, now renamed Harare, in Zimbabwe. John Condy was a double doctorate veterinary researcher in Rhodesia in the days before it became Zimbabwe. John Condy invariably had all sorts of weird and wonderful wild animals in and around their house. He was one of the first people I came across who practised falconry. He had a profound influence on many now successful falconers in Zimbabwe and South Africa, notably Adrian Lombard.  Besides Lanner Falcons, he had an African Hawk-Eagle which he called Nimbus. The name had serious connotations. Nimbus is a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being or a saint. Nimbus was an adult African Hawk-Eagle. It was large aggressive and had piercing yellow eyes.

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows”.

~John Betjeman

One afternoon, John Condy told Mike, his eldest son, and I to get a glove and take some minced meat and go and feed Nimbus. No problem. We naively thought this could be fun so off we went with glove and the minced meat, having never done this before. Once we got into  the “chicken run” enclosure  where Nimbus was being kept, this raptor lunged at us repeatedly. Nimbus was restrained by jesses secured around his legs and the jesses were attached to a rope which was tied to his perch, so provided we did not get too close he could not get hold of us. Nimbus was big, in a 10 year old’s eyes, especially with fully extended wings. I was shaken at the degree of aggression Nimbus displayed. I think it must have been one of the first occasions I realised that there are some wild things that cannot be tamed. Needless to say we threw the minced meat down below Nimbus’s perch and backed out the enclosure intact. The idea of getting Nimbus onto the glove and feeding him was not going to happen.

I never really thought about Nimbus again until I first visited Mashatu Nature Reserve in south-eastern Botswana, a couple of years ago. We had just crossed the Majale river on our way back to Eagle’s Nest camp. As we drove up and out of the river, in a tree overlooking the river next to the dirt track, sat a adult African Hawk-Eagle.

“The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason”.

While we were looking at this African Hawk-Eagle, a Fish Eagle flew past along the river course. Instantly, the African Hawk-Eagle saw the Fish Eagle it launched itself out of the tree and flew low and fast along the riverbed after the Fish Eagle.

At the last second of the attack, the African Hawk-Eagle pulled up into a steep climb and rose like a rocket towards the slower Fish Eagle. The Fish Eagle must have heard rather than seen the Hawk-Eagle coming but managed to avoid getting hit. The smaller African Hawk-Eagle quickly banished the much larger Fish Eagle from that part of the river. The speed and aggression of the attack was a spectacle, and reminded me of Nimbus.

On most occasions when we visit Mashatu we see a solitary African Hawk-Eagle. This eagle is known to be a cooperative hunter with one bird initiating the chase and the other finishing the attack. I can only imagine what a show that must be. The African Hawk-Eagle has especially acute eyesight which allows it to be a highly adaptive hunter. At times it is a perch hunter stooping down onto its prey from a high tree. Other times, it displays its Aquila character soaring like an Eagle and hunting cooperatively. It is also capable of hunting more like a Sparrowhawk, manoeuvering through trees using its long tail, which can be fanned out, for steering in tight turns. The next image shows a African Hawk-Eagle perched near  the top of a high tree in Amboseli National Park. The variety of images in this post show that the African Hawk-Eagle is found from Kenya down to around the tropic of Capricorn.

“The world is endlessly fascinating to those who take the time to look.”
 ~Marty Rubin

The African Hawk-Eagle’s scientific name is Aquila spilogaster. Aquila  means “eagle” in latin and “spilo” means “spotted” in Greek and gaster means “stomach” in Greek.  Aquila eagles have the characteristic feathers on their legs and a large hind talon which is used for piercing its prey’s vertebra or skull in the kill. Like most eagles, the African Hawk-Eagle has yellow feet. This Hawk-Eagle preys on small mammals, such as hares, hyrax, squirrels, mongooses and monkeys, and reptiles such as lizards. monitors and snakes, and birds which range from Go-away birds to gamebirds, hornbills, doves, plovers and even herons.

The African Hawk-Eagle is a medium-sized eagle at about 55–65 cm in length. It is much smaller than a Martial Eagle which is around 80 centimetres in length. The upper parts are blackish. Its underparts are white, heavily streaked with black. The trailing edge of the wings and tail have a broad black bar. The sexes are similar in colour but as with most raptors the female is larger than the male. There is active siblicide (younger sibling dies after repeated attacks by the older sibling) among African Hawk-Eagle chicks but the surviving young bird develops a rufous colouration prior to its black adult plumage.

The common wisdom seems to be that eagles are generally  larger birds than hawks. This is a generalisation as the some of the larger hawks are larger than the smaller eagles. The next image shows the distinctive broad black trailing edge on the underside of its wings and tail. It is not always easy to see the blotching on its belly from a distance. From below the African Hawk-Eagle is easily differentiated from a Martial Eagle because its neck is not black to dark-brown and the tailing edges of the wings and tail feathers do not have the broad black band of the African Hawk-Eagle.

“Is it possible, I wonder, to study a bird so closely, to observe and catalogue its peculiarities in such minute detail, that it becomes invisible? Is it possible that while fastidiously calibrating the span of its wings or the length of its tarsus, we somehow lose sight of its poetry? That in our pedestrian descriptions of a marbled or vermiculated plumage we forfeit a glimpse of living canvases, cascades of carefully toned browns and golds that would shame Kandinsky, misty explosions of color to rival Monet? I believe that we do. I believe that in approaching our subject with the sensibilities of statisticians and dissectionists, we distance ourselves increasingly from the marvelous and spell binding planet of imagination whose gravity drew us to our studies in the first place.

That is not to say that we should cease to establish facts and verify our information, but merely to suggest that unless those facts can be imbued with the flash of poetic insight then they remain dull gems; semi-precious stones scarcely worth the collecting.”
~ Alan Moore

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike