Tag: bird

IMAGES OF SMALL – THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #660 – SITTIN’ ON THE FENCE

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A Minor Bird

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

Robert Frost
and what song are you trying to silence today? en theos ††† jim

 

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #644 – MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

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Christmas reminds us we are not alone.  We are not unrelated atoms, jouncing and ricocheting amid aliens, but are a part of something, which holds and sustains us.  As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.  Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family. Donald E. Westlake

Enjoy your blessings, keep an eye out for your brightest star and follow that sucker……..en theos….jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #630 – WHAT WILL YOU FIGHT FOR?

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I am in the midst of a terrific read, Die Empty by Todd Henry. I am absolutely loving this book, but it forces you to take a look at your aimless tendencies and to find and close the loopholes through which you allow your true purpose to slip through.

I want to be like this much smaller Redwing Blackbird who was just tearing the heck out of the Blue Heron for being in his territory. In the animal kingdom you kind of don’t have a 911 or a way to file a grievance when someone tries to move into your space.

What are you aspiring towards on behave of others?

What will you stand for today?

What will you refuse to compromise on, no matter what?

What will determine your terms of engagement?

What do you know you should be doing, but have been ignoring?

These seemingly simple questions just have me frozen. I’m having a hard time facing up to truthfully answering them. They make me feel weak and a bit like a wimp.

So, what are you standing for today? Share some answers with me, it might help to empower me and find my purpose…. en theos ††† jim

Photos on the journey #450

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A bird in a hand is worth two in a bush!!!

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” also sometimes given as, “A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush,” is a proverb saying that it is better to stick with something you already have, rather than pursuing something you may never get. This proverb is a very popular warning, widely used in many English-speaking countries.
The phrase seems to have originated at some point in the 13th century, in a related Latin form: Plus valet in manibus avis unica quam dupla silvis. This can be loosely translated as, “A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the woods.”
The basic warning of “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is that you must take care not to get too greedy in life. If you are holding a bird in the hand, you have your meal for the evening. You can take that one bird, and be well fed. If instead you let it go to pursue two birds you’ve spied in a bush, you may catch neither, and wind up hungry for the night. This proverb points out that by passing up a sure thing for a more promising possibility, you also run the risk of losing both the sure thing and the promising possibility.
So be happy with what you got ††† en theos ††† jlawrence

Photos on the journey #410

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While grilling our dinner out in the backyard late yesterday afternoon, this Thrasher kept coming to perch on the same pickets of our fence. It took until the third time for me to grab an image of him. It made me wonder if he thought that his camouflage was working so good as to make him unseen?

Camouflage is a set of methods of concealment that allows otherwise visible animals, soldiers, military vehicles, or other objects to remain unnoticed by blending with their environment or by resembling something else. Examples include a leopard‘s spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly. Camouflage is a form of visual deception; the term probably comes from camouflet, a French term meaning smoke blown in someone’s face as a practical joke. ©wikipedia

So today, are you going to blow smoke or stand out??????

pezful ez feel’n 2U†††en theos†††jlawrence

Photo of Da Day @ Da Pine #371

PARROT IN A PEAR TREE……

I was having my last cup of coffee yesterday when I heard the different song of a bird carrying into my home. Walking outside, I quickly spied this out of place bantam parrot giving life to an otherwise dead pear tree.

He let me approach within 4-5 feet and with mild interest listened to my pleas and weak attempts to speak to him, to whisper him to my outstretched finger. He chatted back, but I was as lost at understanding as he was. One time he flew towards me and came within a foot of landing on my hand. After 45 minutes of a mostly one-sided conversation, he grew tired of my chit chat and flew to a neighbors tall pine.

My wife sharply remembered hearing his song a passing on our morning walk. We went to where she thought he lived. Responding to our knocking a young father came to our answer and surprisingly confirmed that during the night their dog had attacked the bird’s covered cage and the pet had flown the coup.

I was a bit miffed at his indifference in wanting to recover the bird. The bird had been a pet for 3 years yet had not been given a name nor ever once had physical contact with the humans. The man reluctantly came with me to see his “pet” unreachably high in a tree. He shrugged his shoulders and deadpanned “ I don’t know how I would ever catch him” and returned home.

The bird came back to our yard several times and filled the air with his song and beauty. I kept trying to talk him down, but he would feign interest and fly away. I worried about him and hoped to find where he might roost and try a night capture, but he never returned as the sun set.

I could not shake the question of why had our flight paths crossed? In my am prayers I realized that he had shown me that while we long for and can escape the cage that holds us prisoner, we most often do little with our freedom.

Just as Red from Shawshank Redemption so honed his advise to Andy: “These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.”

This creature had escaped, but had no where to go. “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #320

Heron or Egret

A large white heron, the Great Egret is found across much of the world, from southern Canada southward to Argentina, and in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It’s the largest egret in the Old World, and thus has garnered the name Great White Egret. In the New World, however, the white form of the Great Blue Heron is larger. In the United States, the Great Egret used to be called the American Egret but that was hardly appropriate, since its range extends beyond the Americas and indeed farther than other herons.

Herons and Egrets are in the same family and look similar, so what is the difference? The name Egret comes from the French ‘aigrette’ meaning the plume feathers of the six species of white Egrets. These are a special breeding plumage only occurring through part of the year. For many years they were popular in the fashion trade. Egrets were the Herons from which ‘aigrettes’ were obtained so causing the death of many birds. The term has since lost its original meaning and is now used to describe various members of the Heron family which do not have these plumes and which are not white.

Sometimes it is okay to be confused on your journey††††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #313

Great Egret (Ardea alba) in flight.

The Great Egret is most certainly not the most graceful looking birds when taking off and landing. But let them get up to air speed, pulling that neck into an S to which even my second grade teacher Miss Kelly would give a silent nod of approval. They become a wonder of grace and poetry in motion. So it is a real treat to be in a quiet place yet close enough to hear the power of those wings creating the lift needed to carry their 2 pounds into flight.

Watching their landings, you will likely find the quiet broken with your snort of laughter at seeing a small tree quake under their weight, accompanied by the squawks of their colony as they settle to roost.

May you always walk away from awkward landings on your journey†††nade te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #261

This small pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) just seems too darn peaceful. Wish I presented that image. Wish I had it to wear but it never seems to fit for long.

This Grebe has a chicken-like bill, the Pied-billed Grebe is common on lakes and ponds across North America. It is rarely seen flying and prefers to sink out of sight when danger threatens. Now that last behavior fits all to well with me.

“The Two Most Important Days In Your Life Are ….
The Day You Are Born,
And …..
The Day You Find Out Why”
~ Mark Twain
 
Keep looking for that second best day on your journey††nada te turbe†jim