Bird potraits, and some four-leggeds, as a mental health break
During this rather grim political period, I thought I would offer a brief interlude from my corner the natural world. I put these and some others up on Flickr.com, but I have no idea how you access them, unless it's by using my name.
Most of the more colorful birds make stopovers here on their way to and from Central America and Canada. They knock me out in terms of their colors, design, songs, variety, and different behaviors.
I hope you enjoy them, and they brighten your day.
The photos look a bit blurry; I even tried some tiffs, but they weren't any better.
In order they are: evening grosbeak, male
Lewis's woodpecker
sharp-shinned hawk
black-headed grosbeak
cedar waxwing
western tanager, immature male
mourning dove
western tanager, breeding male
black-headed grosbeak, male
Steller's jay
rufous hummingbird
big buck resting
red-shafted flicker,
male triplet fawns (no, really)
Bullock's oriole, male
Gracie the racoon
Nice pix. Thanks.
October 28, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Welcome.
October 28, 2009 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know nothing about birds, Wendy, but these are beautiful. Like the Cedar Waxwing - very regal...
;0)
p.s. you give names to your raccoons? I just try to get them out of my trash cans...
October 28, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ho ho! We live in the country, so they just munch on bird seed. I love 'em; I understand city people aren't such fans. Gracie is the only one with a name. Doesn't she just look like a Gracie?
Did you get the photos i emailed you?
October 28, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Thanks! The new mails hadn't shown up on my feed for some reason. JUST LOVELY! You seem, from the angle, really up close to that buck there. Are they that friendly...?
October 29, 2009 4:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, it depends. The big bucks only come during rutting season, November mainly. There is usually a herd of resident does who hang here, and it can turn into a real mating-rodeo. When the bucks are jazzed up, you wouldn't want to get too close; I doubt they would brook much 'interference.' When they are calm, and no does nearbye, I sometimes go out and about to try to snap a picture. It may be a complete delusion, but I believe I can tell which ones are okay to approach, and I always plan a get-away. Due to past injuries, I walk a bit (well, maybe more than a bit) funny, and I like to think they see me as no threat. I go slowly, and talk softly. Yes, I know it sounds stupid; my husband is gone for a couple weeks, and before he leeft he gave me The Lecture on critter-safety; he's right.
If two or more big bucks are here, they joust for top kahuna position; you would never get near them then. The foghts can get surprisingly ferocious.
October 29, 2009 7:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
This was fun, Wendy. Always like seeing bird pics...we live in the country too, and have many feathered visitors. "Little Spirits" I calls 'em. ;o) In the wintertime, my favorites are the chickadees.
And that buck looks well fed. :o)
October 28, 2009 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta black-capped chickadee up at www.flickr.com
I just don't know how you access them. By my name, or the bird name. They sure look better there than on moveable type.
Messengers. Thanks, flower.
October 28, 2009 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
How utterly deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelightful.
I hereby render unto you the Dayly Naturalist Award for this here TPMCafe Site, given to all of you from all of me.
These are wonderful. Little deer and great stag. No wonder so many cultures worshiped him.
And raccoons., well you already know my predilection for these handsome mammals.
The birds. It is the eyes for sure. We have a genetic tendency to focus on the eyes. At least I think we do.
Just beautiful photography.
BRAVO!!!
October 28, 2009 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to say, this is the first time since the 1991 Oscar's that I've agreed with Dick's choices, Wendy.
Wonderful stuff.
October 28, 2009 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean when Richard Perle beat out JFK and Barbara Streisand?
October 28, 2009 9:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's my man Nolte there - my personal role model and separated-at-birth twin. Kindof ashamed of him for that movie though. Working with Streisand? Better to appear on a Glen Beck News Special.
October 28, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
So do you have a thing for Hawaiian shirts too?
Yeah your bro musta been messed up when he signed on to that one.
October 29, 2009 1:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's the one where people really started noticing the likeness. ;-)
October 29, 2009 1:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I meant the Streisand movie?
Dude looks normal in the next shot, maybe could use a bump but hey can't we all.
(I confess it really freaks me out that my spell checker corrects me on streisand-wtf.)
October 29, 2009 1:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
South Park's got her pegged. She's evil.
Run, Nick, RUUUUUUUUUN!
October 29, 2009 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oscar? Oscar who? de la Renta? Wilde or the Grouch?
Thanks ever so, Q.
October 28, 2009 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without all these peckerwood critters by now. It snowed a bunch today and last night, and a huge herd of robins came in; they were singing to beat the band.
October 28, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stunning photos, Wendy. Thanks. I envy you both for being situated where you can see all these creatures and for your skill at capturing the images for the rest of us.
Incidentally, Gracie is sent regards by her third cousin out here who eats the leftover cat food we put out after the stray cat that visits has had his fill.
October 28, 2009 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I will tell Gracie when I see her. I sure love their little hands, and are they smart. They can undo wires and get into things I would never have considered.
Though the bears are worse; not so much smart as just Wham! Smash! and their claws can go through anything, I swear. Brrr.
We really did luck out o getting this place; it's a little oasis right between the mountains and the desert.
October 28, 2009 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Beautiful, Wendy! My brain was hurting and then I found you... R-E-L-I-E-F
October 29, 2009 1:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
So happy to oblige, Kfreed!
October 29, 2009 7:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Wendy - thanks for reminding me of one of my all time favorite cartoons from yesteryear. I was in the Saturday Review. A group of Penguins were standing around, and one of them was wearing a pair of Farmer John coveralls. Another was saying to it: "Around here, we have a dress code."
I'm living in a top bird area myself - major stop over on the Pacific Waterfowl flyway. What I really dig are the Black Faced Ibis. It seems so tropical when they come. Birds rock.
October 29, 2009 2:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good one, boho! I can just see it now, giggle snort!
Bugger! I can't get the name of the political cartoonist from way back; I have one of his books. Cartoons like:
A feed lot outside of a giant processing.rendering plant. The pigs are fenced in with rail fences. One little pigglet is squirming its way under the fence and OUT. One adult pig is saying to another, "That's all this younger generation thinks of; escape from reality."
October 29, 2009 7:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
R. Cobb, boho!!!! As relevant today as ever.
http://www.shimmerytimbers.com/starticles01.htm
October 29, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember his work in the LA Free Press back in the era of drugs, sex and rockandroll. I mean "The Revolution." Ha. What did we get? The Yuppies.
October 29, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great pics Wendy. What a contrast to the political picture we view every day. It has to tell us something.
October 29, 2009 3:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, People. For me, what grows outside and who comes to visit (birds, foxes, deer, etc) has come to be a small Haven From the Storm. My husband has a telescope that provides him with a measure of relief and perspective.
The Cornell people, who keep track of such things, are telling us many bird species are decreasing dramatically in numbers, especially the travelers. They posit that it may be due to pesticides in the far south, and toxins in the tar sands in Alberta. I do know that this year was not a good year for songbird here, but every year is different, so I'm trying not to jump to conclusions.
October 29, 2009 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Beautiful, thanks.
My dad has always been crazy into birds. When I was a kid, he was always saying in an urgent hushed voice, "Oh, look! A kingfisher!" I didn't inherit his excellent distance vision, so I rarely (if ever, come to think of it) saw whatever it was in time. But he did manage to train me how to scan a natural setting for wildlife.
When I compare myself to other people, I realize how much more I appreciate animals in the wild. I can't I.D. many birds on the spot, but in the last few years I have been thrilled to see catbirds, cowbirds, flickers, an osprey, and a spectacular thrum of yellow against green leaves as a goldfinch(?) bobbed by. Can't explain why it's a thrill, but it is.
October 29, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
And the songs! When the black-headed grosbeaks are looking to mate in the spring, if you close your eyes you can almost believe in heaven, or (in my case) try to believe a little more in god. Most of the birds have nicknames in our house: they are Carusoes. Evening grosbeaks are Jimmy Durantes (them big ol' chunky beaks), or Peeps (the sound they make).
Masterpiece movies set in England are so full of bird-song; it just knocks me out.
Remeber all the Cardinals in Ohio? They say that with (shhhhh!) global warming weather patterns, they are moving farther west, and are now seen in eastern Colorado. And bluejays, probably will come. One small benefit of climate change.
That, and that the melting polar caps can open up so much more area for oil-drilling. ;-}
October 29, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks so much for the photos, Wendy.
It's hard to decide whether a bird becomes a favorite for its song or for its coloration; maybe both. So that coffee on a porch or in a garden accompanied by the coos of subtly-shaded but spotted mourning doves is hard to beat as a great way to start the day.
With or without a beautiful song, I love "designer" birds -- a few that both are boldly patterned -- like the flicker -- but more often those that have subtle gray/cream/dash of chartreuse coloration like the sharp-shinned hawk, the rufous hummingbird and my mother's favorite, the red-eyed verio:
http://image02.webshots.com/2/9/79/57/52497957jIWmaA_ph.jpg
About raccoons: I knew it was time for husband #2 to go when an enchanting family of raccoons nested under our porch and all was harmony until the day one of the baby/adolescents decided to sit on the porch table and chatter happily to me while I had my coffee. My husband promptly grabbed a wrought iron frying pan from the kitchen and banged it on the table, scaring the little guy to death. Moments later I heard the poor frightened critter wailig to his mother. The next day, the family was gone. Two weeks later, His Lordship discovered he was, too.
October 29, 2009 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink