Tundra Swans over Cape May – October 2010
Criers of the winter to come…
Category Archives: Birds
Fishing the sky
“What a needy, desperate thing to claim what’s wild for oneself…”
Can a kept hawk ever be a *happy* hawk, I wonder?
Falconers will say their birds are well-loved and are cared for properly. I don’t doubt that.
Educators who work with non-releasable birds will say that many people who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to interact with a wild thing are touched by the lives of these captive birds. I don’t doubt that, either.
But keeping wild-caught birds for falconry? Purposely fishing the sky for a healthy hawk to catch and keep as one’s personal hunting partner?
How is that right?
Are captive-bred birds somehow less desirable for falconry?
Anyone know?
I’m as guilty as the next person of enjoying the “horse and pony show” offered by the opportunity to be up close with a wild bird of prey, but I can’t help wondering that their souls aren’t somehow diminished by the contact; by being kept.
Non-releasable birds have to be thought of in a different context, I guess, because of their potential as champions and ambassadors of a species; were it not for them most people would never have the chance to see a Bald Eagle or a Screech Owl at arm’s length. Or to understand the impact we humans have on them.
But falconers and their healthy wild-caught birds?
I’m not so sure how I feel about that.
My issue is not with falconers, exactly. Falconry sounds like a very cool thing to do… there was a period of time where I read everything about falconry that I could get my hands on. Dan O’Brien’s books were particularly alluring to me… his stories of hunting grouse and ducks on the prairies of South Dakota with a dog and the constant sky…
Falconers are due credit, I believe, for the role they played in saving the Peregrine Falcon, among other species. The individual falconer with a couple birds that he flies on weekends as part of a greater lifestyle does not trouble me.
My issue is with those who turn to *education* to support a habit of acquiring birds. Maybe they need an educational component on their license to increase the number of birds they’re permitted to keep. I have no idea, really, but I’ve seen a number over the years who just don’t seem to be doing the right thing by the birds in their care.
Maybe I’m just being overly sentimental.
“… to be wild means nothing you do or have done needs to be explained.”
Photos: Harris’ Hawk at an upstate NY *raptor center*
Quotes from “Hawk” by Stephen Dunn
Favorites
A couple more from photography boot camp…
The cold at sunup was still a novelty that weekend…
One of a hundred arhats…
A falconer’s redtail…
Darn that guy for walking through my pic…
Thanks to Jayne for a bit of photoshop magic!
; )
A sweet cow with spurs…
More clouds…
Bad bird photo of the week
Hmm…
My only hint is that I’ve never been to Texas.
: )
Invisibird
Brown Creeper, disappearing.
Were it not for their predictable habit of hanging out in the trees surrounding the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory and climbing upwards (but only partway!) before swooping down to the base of a nearby tree and starting their ascent all over again, I’d probably never notice them.
I did spend all that time watching kinglets yesterday tho, so my eyes had plenty of time to wander to the other birds who keep company with them.
Brown Creepers don’t look like much, but they’re a treat anyway and their song is sweet beyond words.
Where must a person live to hear Creepers sing regularly?
Petty kings
If only I’d gotten this hairdo…
combined with this expression!
: )
(I can’t stop giggling at this pic!)
I wandered around Sandy Hook hoping for my first Brant of the season, but found none, despite they’re being “in” already. Instead I spent the afternoon kicking up Golden Crowned Kinglets from the grass at my feet… such endearing little birds once you get eye level with them.
Eye level to a kinglet today meant parking myself in a sunny spot in the grass where they were feeding and waiting for them to come close enough… which garnered many a curious glance as I focused my lens at nothing very obvious to most people passing by.
It strikes me that bird photography, by necessity, is a solitary pursuit…
The post title refers to a translation of the genus name Regulus to which the kinglets belong; historical names include Flame-crest and Fiery-crowned Wren. The orange patch is only visible when a bird is excited or challenged by another. I think that’s what the show was about in that top photo, as two birds were feeding very close together at the base of the tree.
Wordless Wednesday – Some fall color
5 ways to look at a willet
I spent a couple of happy hours stalking the willets feeding at low tide on St. Simons Island and never could figure out what it was they were eating…
: )
A week in photos
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So… what have you been up to?
: )
The happiness that comes to us
Disgruntled beginning birders were the theme at Sandy Hook Bird Observatory today; my first volunteer day since, oh… June, I guess.
Sitting behind the desk in that drafty building on the bay, on any given Sunday, promises a variety of experiences. Many days we see no one, but oftentimes we have a mix of visitors, full of questions, but hesitant to spend any money to validate our presence there.
Today, Donna and I managed to sell exactly one “Butterflies of Sandy Hook” checklist.
(Exactly sixty-four cents with tax.)
A banner sales day!
; )
Donna, who’s a librarian by day, is used to this sort of trading of information for the sake of visitorship. She recognizes our purpose there more readily than me, probably.
Me… I feel like I haven’t earned my keep as a volunteer if I haven’t sold at least one copy of the Sibley’s guide…
The folks who came in today or called to complain… about the birds not being Here now… or the birds not being There yesterday, were expressing a frustration that I imagine many of us feel…
We want what we want from the natural world, when we want it.
If we show up… we expect Nature will be there waiting for us, with bells on.
Right?
I’ve spent the last couple weekends at Cape May or at the hawkwatch in Montclair… looking for hawks, waiting for them to show…
They never did, really, not in any spectacular way that I’ve come to expect. Instead there was a huge passing of Monarch butterflies at Cape May and Buckeyes in the hundreds of thousands…
And a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that amused me for hours while waiting for Broadwings to pass, near invisible, overhead…
Opportunities fly by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.
~Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, 1889