Three little birds showed up today. I was pleased to see them Since experimenting with the cameras, the birds have not been showing up and remaining in a constant range well enough for me to capture them. I was pleased to see them because I am not sure what one of the species is. This is the eastern phoebe, of course. And this is the eastern bluebird. And…
My new approach to wild animals is this: I will speak their names and wait for them to show up. Without even trying, that is what has been happening. In the last month, it happened with the stork, the spoonbill and the blue heron. Just a couple days ago, I was asking about a wood duck. From searches online, it seemed the little pied-billed grebe might be a juvenile wood…
31 days. What I have learned, for a start, is that I like documenting events. I have a poor long term memory, but also one easily triggered by a smell or a particular photograph. Words allow me that too. So I appreciate that I am cementing the memories with this process. And, too, I now feel confident to record the summer trip. But we’ll get to that in a minute….
The light-hearted backyard is back. A bright sunny (though not warm) day. When I looked out the sliding door this morning, I saw a burst of activity in the wild life. The white duck – the mallard hen – skittered down the bank, to the shore, and it looked as though it was being chased by a circling snowy egret. I’m not certain how likely such a thing is, so…
The sound did not pull my attention. Too often had I been frustrated by turning just in time to see only the spreading waves. I never managed to see the fish themselves break the surface, but only the water’s concentric rings dispersing. I never quite have my eyes in the right place. So I didn’t turn around. Straightening my back in mild irritation, I pulled my elbows in and grasped…
This afternoon, the backyard journey extended several miles to the north end of Tampa – Lettuce Lake Park. It is a 240 acre park with a tremendous boardwalk over a swamp that feels almost primitive. The sight of alligators lounging on fallen logs, and snakes curled around themselves next to pond lilies do nothing but enhance that feeling. It is a wonderful place, a half an hour away, that I…
Overnight the world broke into a million tiny shards and fell upon the water. Well, it looked like that this morning, at any rate. As the day dawned the rain fell in large flll droplets and the wind created a grey sheet around the backyard. It is remarkable how the quality of the mornings changes with the gusting winds. As the winds slowed and the curtain of shadows slowly lifted,…
The backyard is great fuel for the imagination, but it is also calming.It is not difficult to find a peacefulness here. I like to see the wind rippling across the water, and the reflection of light laid down like a path. One of the sounds I miss from growing up is the wind through a bamboo grove. It is a different quality from wind through any other trees, I think….
Nature is conspiring to delight me. The person above is the Eastern Bluebird. This morning, a little brown bird which I believe to be the Eastern Phoebe, darted across the lawn. He took up residence in a tree outside the screen and stayed there. His coloring is such that I have difficulty photographing him well. These birds are really about an inch or two high, and of course are usually…
I knelt down on the boardwalk, my camera hanging from my neck. “Look,” I exclaimed with excitement. “There really is something there.” There, with steam rising from it, and the sulphuric odor suffusing the air, there was life there at the water’s edge. This was on a walk among the glaciers in Yellowstone National Park. The brochures were right, it seemed. Even in this inhospitable environment, the very crust of…