World Bird Wednesday LI

Haven't We Met Somewhere Before?

   Some of my favorite and most productive birding locals have been put off limits to me due to duck and deer hunting. Everyone needs to have a little fun I suppose, including the hunters who help pave the way financially and politically to make sure there are such things as nature preserves and that wetlands are maintained and advocated for.
   In my country the opening line of our Declaration of Independence "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union" is quickly morphing into "Your on your own buddy, don't come looking to me for sympathy." If your not quick enough or strong enough to get by on your own moxie, to bad for you, the game, as it is played in the U.S.A., is for the powerful and this is still a damn good country especially if your playing with the House's money.
   It is no easy feat to organise and find funding for something as nebulous as habitat for non-contributing avian and amphibian life. Our gun loving citizens and their lobby are big time players in American politics, and the powers that be know better than to ruffle their feathers or infringe on their playgrounds. So we, the eccentric birders and bird photographers, ride the political coat tails of those whose interest in birds centers on shooting them out of the sky. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. In the world of power politics we, the nature photographers, are the Great Unwashed or as a birder might put it, LBJ's (little brown job's:-)!
  If we don't flock we're finished.

The commonest bird on the planet is the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus) also known as the chicken. We love our chicken and don't want to go through the trouble of shooting them in the wild so they are raised by the billions in controlled environments for our consumption. Indeed it is feared the Red Jungle fowl may be extinct in the wild. We generally see them plucked, carved, and packed in plastic covered Styrofoam trays. Hardly a sighting you'd want to inform E-bird about. If we were to divide chickens up equally and fairly among the Earth's people you would be receiving eight in the mail as your inheritance. "Yes," You might add, "But what of the wild birds, which is most common?" The answer to that question appears to be the Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea) of sub-Sahara Africa. I had never heard of it before today! Not surprising I suppose, since it's range is limited even though it numbers are estimated to be over 1.5 billion mating birds. Well, how can the Quelea be considered the most "common" bird if it is not seen by the most people? Good question. The Quelea may indeed be the most populous wild bird but the bird seen by the most people day in day out is... The House Sparrow (passer domesticus): The ultimate LBJ.

  

  As I went forth this week to record the birds of Michigan I got a taste of my status as a bird photographer. I asked the Ranger why the refuge would be closed until May. "We have to give the birds a rest." He said. This I could understand even if it reduces my opportunity to see and photograph something remarkable. Just then I remembered the temporary Shooting blinds that had been trucked into the refuge at the end of October and set up at strategic positions. Some rest. I'll bet I could take one hell of a picture of a Canadian goose falling out of the sky. I wonder if the herons, eagles, and cranes tolerate the explosions of bird shot knowing their habitat opportunities would be even more greatly reduced if the hunters where not so gung-ho about stuffing their freezers with greasy duck and goose meat.

   Having received the word from the man I went back to my car to drive home. I paused, key in hand, to the sound of excited bird calls. I need pictures, lots of them to fill the bird freezer that is my hard drive. There behind the Shiawassee Refuge's Welcome Center was a brush pile popping with House sparrows. I sat in the mud trying to remain inconspicuous and nonthreatening as I clicked away. My spirit lifted.
The Egyptians used the picture of a sparrow to express the idea: common, dirty, and vile. They also credited the sparrow with carrying our souls to heaven. I felt like I was with my people.

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday L

Devil's Night

   In keeping with the season, even if I'm a day late and a dollar short, I'd like to share some Halloween spirit. I have been watching horror movies one after another for the last couple of weeks, alone up here in the North woods. That, along with my firehouse days in Detroit, have spawned plenty of horror filled moments to macabre to relate.

   Our shared mortality is the great unspoken. We can except death and dying as a function of nature, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but when we feel the cold breath of the Reaper no one is immune from the nerve jangling fear of the ultimate darkness. We take it personal.

   Devils Night comes each year to Detroit, the night before Halloween. It is a freakishly violent tradition where shadowy arsonist declare total warfare on the dilapidated neighborhoods of my Rustbelt hometown. It is pure evil. Every "fire buff "(the hanger ons, paparazzi and groupies) that can manage the travel expense are here in mass, waiting for the the torch to be lit, to drink of our blood. Our admirers want to feel the hurt and dance on our early graves. Like mindless zombies they crowd around the firehouses waiting for the doors to open and the trucks to barrel out. The curious pray for havoc and when the real devils acquiesce to their wishes the chaotic celebration begins.
   The fire storm is something to see, that I will admit. The smoke column lifting from a 90 year old wood frame structure is a mixture of twirling embers and superheated smoke riding the wind upward like the jet-stream behind a cackling, broom wielding witch.

Some folk claim to be able to see things in the flames as they envelope these old homes and businesses. I see it sometimes myself. Spirits, or ghosts maybe, separated and cast off from their haunts like an inept dentist might rip out a sore tooth. I can plainly see a face in this fire picture from a few nights ago. A dispirited entity?  The more I stare the clearer the face of a witch becomes, I can even make out the hat now! This picture is straight out of the camera and probably nothing more than an example of the human brain seeking to apply meaning to the random patterns of an elemental and frankly frightening force of nature. There is a desire to make sense of it, to control it, to make light of its terrifying potential and dark cruelty. But when the hair stands up on the back of your neck, it's hard not to believe your gut when it's telling you some malevolent force is at work.

   There is a field at Shiawassee Reserve that is given over to sunflowers. Acres and acres of them. As it has gone to seed massive flocks of Red-winged blackbirds have collected there. The swirling noise of the winged hoards is oppressive. Naturally visions of Hitchcock's "Birds" come to mind, so effective was his slow boiling paranoia it resonates all these years later. It is unsettling to be there alone and so vulnerable, I can't take it very long.
   Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a little break from all this ghoulishness and watch The Marx Brother's Duck Soup tonight!

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday IL

Out of Nowhere

The Green Wall

   It didn't take long for the hardwoods that line the Pine river to shed their leaves and reveal the tangled jumble of naked branches that hide beneath. Gusty winds blew rain storms through the Great Lakes region this week and even the mighty oaks, who usually hold tight to their dead leaves all winter long, had their heads tossed and littered the lawn with a chaos of brown confetti.
   The opposite bank from my riverside home is affectionately known as the Green Wall, an iron curtain of impenetrable vegetation that is quickly losing it's density. Beyond that flood plain is Pine River road and a few other homes that stay hidden all summer long behind the illusion of complete deep woods isolation. Soon I will see lights twinkling out there, a sure sign  there are others who share this boreal forest sancturary.
    My mind was immersed in raking up the leafy fallout and readying it for the mulch pile when I spotted an adult Bald eagle sitting on a rock in the middle of the river a ways down stream. Sprinting into the house I grabbed my camera on the outside chance the bird would hold it's position long enough to pose for a picture. I planned to capture a quick reference shot but as I approached the bank looking for the distant angle the eagle lifted off. Was she teasing me? Time would tell, from my vantage point it looked like the great bird took to a tree further down stream. The chase was on!
   The brush along the river is booby trapped with barbed seed pods that cling to clothing with a devilish Velcro ferocity. Already I resembled a human Chiapet. After an ankle bending hundred yards it was time to stick my neck out and see if the big bird was still in the neighborhood. There it was, perched in a tree and out in the open. I scooted back up the bank and moved further along until a flat opening presented itself. I was trembling, my nerves were juiced with adrenalin and the eagle bounced madly teetering on the long end of the 400mm lens. No way was I going to get a clear shot hand held, not at a decent ISO and the low shutter speed the dreary day called for. Finally I rested the camera on the ground with the lens propped up on my knit cap and turned on the LED display screen. It was exasperating fumbling with this primitive set up before the bird showed in the view finder and held steady aim by way of scrunching my cap in various configurations. I put the shutter on a two second delay and clicked. Blurred. I needed better focus. Increasing the LED's magnification I twisted the focus ring until the magnificent bird sharpened. I clicked again and at the count of two the deed was done.
   Now I got greedy. I had this angle in the bag, could I move to a better vantage point and improve the background? I slithered out of my hide and scrambled through the woods. About fifty yards further down the line there was a little rise by a utility easement. The Bald eagle still clinging to it's branch was now framed by White birch. What I wouldn't have given for my tripod and remote shutter release. The big bird held steady for a couple of nervous shots before taking to wing and just like that, the moment was over.
   I walked home with that triumphant glow every lucky bird photographer has shared, in spite of prickling with the million stubborn burrs clinging to my grimy trousers and shirt.
   What a wonderful world it can be!

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday XLVIII

                               

 I Love You Just the Way You Are!

                                                         Little Tiny Feet

If Hollywood had been in charge of designing the Belted Kingfisher, instead of the haphazard bump and grind of evolutionary tectonics, it would sport talons at least on par with a parakeet or sparrow instead of the little tiny feet it has been stuck with. Where's Intelligent Design when you need it? It's not the first time evolution has made mistakes like this. T-Rex jumps immediately to mind with it's dainty fore-limbs to stunted to pick it's own teeth or scratch the back of it's considerable head. Check Godzilla for a sensible T-Rex redo.
  Of course, small feet are considered very desirable by the Geisha's of Japan to the point where they intentionally crunch their toes into ill fitting slippers rather than suffer the stigma of unfashionably out sized clodhoppers. A Geisha would think the kingfishers feet perfectly in proportion to it's size. I would agree to disagree. Besides, the fierce nature of the kingfisher is more in line with a Samaria warrior than a refined lady of culture.
  The Belted kingfisher's blazing airborne attacks, carried out with a acrobatic deftness, defy anything fabricated in Hollywood's computer generated action movies. Indeed, a gritty hero crashing headlong into troubled waters, impaling the woeful with a black saber, and flying off to beat the day lights out of it's stunned victim on a rock, could more or less pass for a movie plot these days.
 


Hitchcock may have had a brutal undertone submerged in his story lines but his implied violence was in context and not the sole point. Sir Alfred reminds me of another of the kingfishers design flaws. Yes, their immense heads. Here's Hollywood's master plan for a more telegenic kingfisher: Shrink the head, enlarge the feet, lengthen the tail feathers, give the eyes a red glare, and chrome the beak! Yeah, that's what we'd see, another doped up Tinseltown remake: Revenge of the Kingfisher!

  Naturally, I jest. My impertinent discontent can be traced to the research into the Belted kingfisher's clan that I did this week. My knowledge concerning ornithology has holes in it the size of Utah and I dare not write about birds without a back up source more authoritative than my own memory.
  So it was that I cast my Enet for factoids about the Belted kingfisher, lesser cousin of the vaunted Kookaburra, greatest of all kingfishers. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon an informative article that commented on the ninety different varieties of kingfisher our world has to offer. Was I misinformed? Wasn't there only a single version of the kingfisher in all of Europe, the Common, and one native to North America, the Belted? Not quite, there were a few others, for instance the Ringed and Green kingfishers that reside in the American South West, but those are rare enough to be easily overlooked by the casually educated.
  To further hammer down the disparity I then read that only six of the ninety Kingfisher species call the whole of the Western Hemisphere home, while Gambia, an African country of barely 2,400 square miles, claims eight! What an astounding variation in diversity.
  One click led to another and I began to find picture after picture of rare kingfishers gorgeously festooned with a dazzling pallet of colorful plumage's. And that is how my drab, slate colored darlings lost some of their visual appeal and made me long for something more...intense.

  Some species of kingfisher are unbelievably rare and precious. The Kofiau Paradise kingfisher is resident to only one tiny island, Kofiau, off the coast of New Guinea. The tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere spanning Africa, Asia, and Australia are our planets kingfisher treasure trove.
  The world over, these peculiar birds share most of the same general attributes. Those that spring to mind are obvious: long beak, tiny feet, and ill proportioned head. The forest dwelling varieties that dine on insects dug from the earth will sport a stouter bill and feet more useful for standing on Terra Firma. There are mountain and desert versions too. Kingfishers are blessed with acute eyesight although they must turn their heads to direct their line of vision to make up for an inability to move their eyes easily in the socket. Kingfishers are creatures of the air and do not presume to walk on the their tootsies except to scuttle into their nesting burrows.
  The drawing on the immediate left is that of the Common Paradise Kingfisher. Now this is what I'm talking about, fashion and function married in an eye popping explosion of cinematic proportions. Just for a change Hollywood, try bringing back Astaire and Rodgers, we could use a little snappy dialog and sophistication. I rest my rant.

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

                                                                                   

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

Come on it's your turn!