A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill will hold more than his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But Iām damned if I see how the helican
Can anyone see these birds and not smile?
Category Archives: Birds
To a sanderling
by way of explanation…
You’re inescapable here
water comes and goes
hisses like fat
you run straight through it
(mostly ahead)
watching your toes
or the grains of sand that fall between
I love your frantic grace
your controlled panic
That you take the roaring alongside for granted
as if the world
is bound to shake every so often
Your world shimmers
is minute
and vast
your beak focused
preoccupied
looking for something, something, something
a single-minded obsession
(You’re mine.)
OK… fess up! What common birds do you obsess over?
(I also have a thing for skimmers and blue jays. And all manner of ducks.)
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Sanderling
Yes… I’m still adding to my collection of sanderling shots.
(They’re to me like shoes are to other women, in that one can never have too many!)
My camera’s CF card’s gone wonky… this always happens… anyone have a guess why?
How to photograph a tern
First find a marshy place
with a dock.
Around the dock, look for some comfortable pilings
where the bird might like to perch.
Then, on the pilings, photograph something for the tern
something beautiful and strange that will make it feel at home.
(I found a couple pelicans.)
Then wait with your camera.
Don’t speak.
Don’t move.
(Hide behind a piling if you have to.)
Sometimes a tern will come quickly
but it can just as well take hours.
Don’t be discouraged if one doesn’t come right away
wait.
Wait years if necessary
it doesn’t mean that your photo won’t be good.
When the bird comes
if it comes,
remain absolutely silent.
Wait until the bird poses for you
then quietly take frame after frame.
Move closer if you like.
Try not to cut off its tail feathers.
If you get too distracted or excited
and forget to show the best angle on the bird
or have too much pelican in the background
don’t worry.
(You can fix most anything in PhotoShop later.)
Just photograph the bird
with the prettiest splash of blue for a background
or green if that’s what you prefer
and remember to have fun.
Photograph the summer breeze, too
and the smell of the sunshine and the ruckus of the boat-tailed grackles.
Then wait for your bird to sing.
(With terns this is an optional step, of course.)
If it doesn’t sing, don’t be sad.
You did your best.
But if the bird sings,
it’s a very good sign.
(Terns seem to spend a lot of time looking at their toes when they should instead be singing.)
It helps to have a great lens when taking photos of birds.
It also helps to have a friend willing to loan you such a lens
be warned tho
you’ll want your own.
Santa
are you listening?
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Skywatch Friday: Driftwood Beach Dawn
An hour or so at sunrise on Jekyll’s Driftwood Beach was a *must-do* for me, despite not really wanting to drag myself from bed in the pre-dawn darkness at the start of what would be a full day of kayaking and then later driving clear across the state of Georgia to start the trip home.
But I’d seen pictures and had to be there with my own camera.
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The dawn was disappointingly cloudy and the horizon dotted with shrimp boats… not what I’d hoped for.
I wandered among the jumbled boneyard of oaks and pines, waiting. I got lost with the fiddler crabs scuttling between the maze-like tangles of trunks and branches. I searched for perfect shells and sand dollars. I came upon a juvenile Bald Eagle, perched in a dead snag, awaiting the clear dawn’s light with me and felt privileged for its company.
Finally, the sun made its appearance above the clouds and I found that I liked it best between these silhouetted and wind bowed oaks.
Enjoy more Skywatch Friday posts here.
Have you ever?
stepped on a plane and found yourself transported to another world?
where wild horses wander amid the ruins of a great island estate?
where the shadows of trees hold anhingas and wood storks?
and life birds fly past in squadrons of color or shades of gray?
where gators smile to lure the unknowing closer to the edge of their world?
where pelicans pose dockside for a portrait?
have you ever lost your breath to the beauty of a sunrise?
(I have!)
I’m like an 11 year old just back from sleep-away camp with a hundred run-on sentences about everything I saw, everyone I fell in love with, every little thing I did… words and photos are just beneath the surface… just waiting for my head to stop with all the spinning.
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I’m also painfully slow to process new experiences which is why I talk in lists and pictures, sometimes.
Bear with me…
Pink
Skywatch Friday: Cape May
Even at her tender age, this hawkwatcher had the birder’s stereotypical *funny hat* thing down pat.
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More skywatch posts here.
i’ve been
swooning over skimmers
contemplating colors for toenails
thinking about a perfect day
staring at a september sky from the shade of my very favorite lighthouse
reading books in bed
finding peace in the sweet lullaby of waves outside my window
flipping rocks to find nothing underneath but sun-warmed crickets and roly-poly bugs
feeling ridiculously happy
loving the way the late afternoon sun makes everything beautiful
contemplating colors for toenails
(over-thinking it, probably)
feeling thankful for monarch butterflies and the people who love them
wondering if forever means tomorrow, too
deciding now is what matters most
finding that places remembered have changed
falling in love again, anyway
dreaming of enough days to make up for lost time
enjoying the peculiar kitsch of the jersey shore
the sharing of it and the sand between our toes
indulging the last weekend of summer
cape may finally!
(i’ve been busy)
Birds at Rocky Point
Susan and Seamus came to their first-ever birdwalk without a pair of binoculars between them. As Field Trip Chairperson, I’m supposed to be prepared for this inevitable oversight on the part of the beginning birder with spare bins to loan out, should anyone need a pair.
Of course I always forget the box of loaner bins that’s buried in a closet somewhere. Luckily someone else in our little group had an extra pair to share. Beginners are such fun and really make these walks for me. They’re enthusiastic about every bird and are curious about everything. I think I’m so used to birding with people that know more than me that it’s nice to feel like an expert once in a while.
We birded in the rain, but did pretty well considering the lousy weather. Rocky Point has an interesting history as a coastal defense site and the views on a sunny day can be dramatic. This morning, the ocean and the river and the sky were all gunmetal gray.
The shrubby fields around Battery Lewis held the expected redstarts and cat birds, a baltimore oriole and lots of vocal carolina wrens, plus some massing tree swallows and a lone chimney swift overhead. We had a nice look at a Peregrine and a couple Osprey, too.
Down at the fishing pier at Black Fish Cove, we found a yellowlegs and a couple oystercatchers, plus a very wet and cranky-looking red tail perched along the river.
Our species count for the couple hour walk was only 35, but for these beginners willing to be out in the rain, each was a small, wet joy.