For anyone who hasn't seen any of these diaries, these photos are my dad's. I can't take responsibility for them. My dad travels to India quite frequently, and he always makes some time for birding. He sees some incredible birds there.

Like the Asian Koel:

More to see if you'll follow me over the jump...

Last week's pictures were, to be blunt, not the best ones. I'm saving the best ones for last.

I'm not quite sure what this one is... <you could have your name here if you help me identify this. I think it's some sort of oriole>

Follow over the jump for more...

Last time I mentioned that my dad travels a lot. He frequently flies to India on business. Of course, time is always set aside for birding.

He also brings back tons of pictures. Enough to last me quite a while.

Eurasian Spoonbill

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First of all, this diary isn't about any specific war. It's more of an examination of the moral and ethical decisions behind going to war, and the best manner in which to conduct it.

I recently wrote a paper in Philosophy on "Just War" theory, and it has me thinking about the moral and ethical questions involved in war.

Under what conditions is war justified? Is it justifiable as a threat? If a country is plunged into war, how can it be conducted?

At what point can "victory" be declared?

Sorry for posting this later than usual. I just got back from seeing "The Dark Knight" (It was awesome). The past few weeks have been very busy for me, so I've had very little time for diarying. (I have, however, had lots of time to comment.)

The subject of today's diary, the Black-Crowned Night Heron, is found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Its range in the U.S. and Canada

First, I would like to apologise to  anyone who was offended for my participation in yesterday's Obama diary flash-mob.

I was asked week before last to do a guide on Austin birding for Netroots Nation. Since most of my birding is done in my back garden, this one won't be as personal as some of the others.

I didn't want to feel left out...

I'm voting for you, too.                                        
                                                             
                                                   

A lot of work went into last week's diary, and it only got 15 comments. I guess I posted it in the middle of the whole purity troll outbreak.

I'll have another story next week. In the meanwhile, I have some pictures that don't really have stories behind them, but are still too good not to post.

Like this one, a painted bunting that visits every summer to eat at the millet feeder.

More pics below the fold  ::  ::

Welcome, Kossacks, to this week's installment of The Left Wing. After a week of trolls and troll diaries (and I guess I would consider myself a "Troll Hunter" so I was pretty busy) I need a good bird diary.

As promised last week, this one is about wood ducks.

I'm feeling a little better about my writing style, so this one will contain some attempts at humour. Many of those attempts will probably fail. Just ignore those ones.

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I promised that I would post another bird diary as soon as I got pics for it, so here it is!

Owls are some of my favourite birds. I love how they always look like they've just been shot with a BB gun, I love the deep booming hoots late at night. My dad and I wanted to attract owls to our house, and Screech Owls seemed the easiest to lure in, so he built an owl house with a camera inside. That way, we could see if they laid eggs, and we could watch the chicks grow up.

This little fellow here is what we were trying to draw in.

From the title of this diary, you've probably guessed that our little idea didn't work as planned. Otherwise this would be a diary about screech owls.

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First of all, thanks to JeffLieber for inspiring the title.

Secondly, If this diary is written incoherently, it's because this story just happened to me.

Thirdly, I'm sort of embarrassed with how incoherent this diary turned out, so I give permission for pootie pictures.

I know this isn't breaking news, and that Neocons are very narrow-minded. I just wanted to share a personal story with you all.

The other day, I was on the bus home from school, and I was chatting with one of my friends about Hummer proudly advertising their 18 mpg, when I hear from the seat behind me: "there's no proof global warming exists", or some other such bullshit. This girl was butting in to my conversation with her RW talking points. I tried my best to continue the conversation that had been so rudely interrupted, but there was no turning back.

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   With all the Wright and Gas Tax diaries out there, I wanted to throw something a little different into the mix. If you like it, tell me; if you don't, tell me that, too.

   My dad got me interested in birding. I have a feeder in my backyard that attracts all sorts of visitors. Until a few years ago, it was a rare and exciting thing to see a Cardinal perched on the feeder.

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Sorry for the short diary. I didn't want to make it longer at the expense of clarity.

I've noticed that traffic on Daily Kos has reached record levels recently. However, this is mainly because everyone's rallying around their favourite candidates. Most of the diaries posted are candidate diaries. I'll admit, I am fairly new here (I've deliberately avoided doing candidate diaries, though), but I plan to stay in for the long haul. But I've wondered what the other new Kossacks will do after the excitement of the primaries is over.

This is my first diary on Kos, so bear with me.

I live in Austin, Texas and vote in Precinct 397.

I'm a first time voter, and in this election, I dove head-first into the process. I voted early, and did a lot of research on how the caucusing process works, so when I arrived at the elementary school where they held the precinct convention I was completely confused. No one there apparently knew what they were doing. The lines moved extremely slowly. After waiting in line to sign in, I caucused for Barack Obama then put my name on the sign up sheet to be a delegate.Since I had nothing else to do I offered to help move chairs. Soon I found myself taking a more active role in the process.

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