Location & bird. Location now Florida and bird, make that birds and lots of them.
Tampa to Sarasota along the Sunshine Skyway I see Ospreys, lots of Osprey. They’re on light poles, in flight, hovering waiting to strike, count 8 before three Black Vultures capture my attention.
Lots of gulls and terns, familiar and unfailiar. Pelican, low and gliding just ahead, huge as I pass under.
Afternoon and it’s Sandhill Cranes, one of pairs with two chicks, and ducks
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MPH that is. All the usual, pigeons, crows, some gulls and a turkey vulture. More Red-winged blackbirds – they’re finally arriving in force. Still no Ospreys, that I’ve seen, but haven’t checked some of the spots where I can can usually count on Ospreys nesting. I expect them on St. Paddy’s so they’re late this year, don’t blame them with the weather we’ve had. Who wants to sit on a wet, waterlogged nest.
A murder of crows
stirring up a loud protest.
Owls in the Northeast.
Barred owls calling and gathering in the summer heat starts with a more constant murmuring of “who” than the standard call until others can be heard responding. Invisible in the dark canopy they assemble, talking and hooting over one another and then as a group move away. Voices fading into the night, southwest through the woods.
Being present, in time, place, and mind opens the door to the many small opportunities that nature offers us. Small opportunities only in the sense of how fleetingly the window is open that allows us to see, learn and understand our place in the life of the planet.
Picasso supposedly said that the problem is keeping the child in the artist. While he may have been speaking about creativity it applies to many aspects of living well, to being present.
Child like curiosity and the fearlessness to explore. Open acceptance. Innocence. Asking, asking, asking: why, how, when… It’s the child that allows us to live a life of creativity without the fear of failure that leaves the word unwritten, the canvas bare.
All this because the owls gathered in the night…
Heron Journey
2005 @ Ray Hasson
Piping plover comes in low
skids running stop
inspect inspect fly away back
Lone white heron loping
over winter’s blackcold water
on tai chi wings.
Might evoke many images one of which could describe today’s journey to witness, lend support to, the Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) Committee’s hearings in Boston.
Base realignment and closing. A miscalculated consideration of dollars because people’s lives are not monetarially valuable. Disruption, displacement and dislocation are not concerns nor is the affect on those who have served and settled near these expendable bases.
Standing watch over starfish,
as the day draws to a close, as they begin their nightly ascension,
climbing into the indigo sky
Haiku Journey 