Tag: birds

photography · poetry

A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was here

Sally4 Comments
Basswood tree with holes drilled by a yellow-bellied sapsucker

Detailed? Abstract? Both?

I was searching for blogging challenges this morning. Having a challenge keeps me posting. The challenge of Detailed or Abstract — or both came from Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge (CFFC) which, it appears, has been taken over by Dan Antion. Cee Neuner started the long-running challenge. She encouraged blogger/photographers to take photos or go through photo archives and post photograph(s) based on the prompt. Mostly, she said, to have fun.

This was a photo I took in the Adirondacks. I was there with a friend who is very knowledgable about nature. If you’ve never walked in the woods with someone who knows them well, make it a bucket list item. My Adirondack-loving friend knows the common names and Latin names of all the trees. He know the birds. He knows the stories and the lore. I love hearing it all.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker pecks holes in horizontal lines in basswood trees because they like the soft bark. Apparently they also like apple trees, birch trees, maples and more. They drill their rows of holes then leave them for the sap to ooze out. Later, they return to eat both the sap and the insects trapped in it.

To me, I just liked the look of the tree with its vertical bark lines and the horizontal sapsucker lines.

In my quest for blogging inspiration, I found a poetry challenge: frozen water that called for using synonyms for the famous “frozen water” in Minneapolis without using the word for immigration enforcement. I’m way over the word count for the challenge, but I’ll put it here FWIW

Winter walk
Snow and cold
Past a tree
Many holed

Does sap freeze?
(Water will)
Sap won’t run
In this chill

What do birds
Who eat sap
Dine on now
Sap’s the trap

People use
Something worse
[sideways move
in this verse]

Intimidation
Immigration
We are lost
As a nation

Take away
Legal status
Now they are
Called non-gratis

They are NOT
All worst-of-worst
[unintentional
outburst]

I sigh a sigh
‘Cause I don’t know
How to help
Or where to go

At the feeder
There’s a jay
“BULLY, BULLY
GO AWAY!”

fiction

Bird’s Eye View

Sally8 Comments

“This monitor taps into city cameras and cameras we’ve placed,” he said. “Yes, we have a camera on the roof of this building.”

He moved to the center screen. “This one shows what the gull is ‘seeing.’ It’s looking through its eyes.”

The woman remarked, “Lovely view.”

He smiled. “This last monitor is a city map that shows the gull’s location.”

She nodded.

He gestured at the controls — a joystick, keyboard, mouse, and a stylus and screen. “The gull can be maneuvered using all of these. Flight, direction, speed — all here. There are built in sensors so it won’t fly it into a fixed object like a window or building. If we want a photograph, it will be from gull’s eyes’ perspective. Just tap here.”

“Who actually operates all this?” she asked.

“I do. I’ll warn you, though — it’s pricey,” he said.

“Money is no object,” she replied.

He smiled. “In that case, let’s get started.”

She pulled out a paper. “This is our address,” she said, “and this is where he works. I want to know everywhere else that he goes.”

He studied the paper and nodded.

“Can the gull look into windows?” she asked.

“We’ve had success with first floor windows. The gull can usually perch or walk outside,” he replied.

“That’ll work,” she answered. “I’m especially interested if he goes into stores.”

“You think he’s seeing someone in a store?”

“Seeing someone?!” she scoffed. “I want to know what he’s getting me for my birthday!”

This is my submission for the Unicorn Challenge. The challenge has only two rules: 1) no more than 250 words, and 2) must be inspired by the photo prompt.

I think my bird spy camera could adapt to the locale. A crow would do well in rural America. Or the ubiquitous robin, although they are nowhere near as brazen as a gull or crow. Pigeons might do nicely in most cities. I may be on to something, right?

Life · photography

God’s Handwriting

Sally2 Comments

I knew the blue heron was there because I had seen it land, settling in the mid-pasture marshy land.

Can you find the heron?

Does this help?

How about this?

As the heron flew off, I did my best to capture him in a photograph. For a moment, he was easier to see.

Charles Kingsley said,

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God’s hand-writing — a way-side sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank for it Him.”

He forgot “in every heron.”

poetry

Three Turkey Vultures

Sally4 Comments

Three turkey vultures alit on the roof
Because they have no voice organs,
I really have no proof
That there was any conversation
Between them at all
Maybe a guttural hiss
Instead of other call

This imaginary dialogue then
Really didn’t occur
But for the sake of storytelling
I hope you won’t demur.

Three turkey vultures sat on the barn
One gave a sniff
“Is that carrion?”
And off that vulture flew
But he went the wrong way.
The other two just shrugged and said,
“I. D. K.”

Two turkey vultures sitting in the sun
Basking in the warmth,
Resting…
Then they heard a gun
“Is someone after us?”
One asked the other.
“I’m not taking any chances.”
And he flew off in a bother.

One lone turkey vulture slowly looked around
He was a long way up
It was a long way down
He felt a little woozy
And his head began to spin
He tipped off the roof
Then his wings kicked in

And he felt a thermal lift
Higher, higher, higher
Sitting can be fun, he thought
But I’d rather be a flier.