Stoney Moss » birds

wordless Wednesday

Deb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:16:01 +0000

Shadow Shot Sunday

Deb — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:13:10 +0000

Thanksgiving Day (in the USA; Portland, Oregon to be exact) was sodden. Yesterday we had four times our average rain (0.86 in vs. 0.20 in) and I’d thought it was to continue all week and weekend. But, Friday was lovely, so here is a fresh shadow.

(I’m obsessing on bare trees and crows at the moment. Be warned. It’s not the sharpest focus, sorry, but the texture and crazy shapes make up for that, I hope.)

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Hey Harriet. A weekly post where you can see galleries of some of last week’s shots and a tour of Hey Harriet’s own creative work. Terrific images nicely put together. (Bink on the camera to go to Hey Harriet.) See Mr. Linky for this week’s offerings.

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‘I and the Bird’ and poetry

Deb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:21:18 +0000

I and the Bird #113 includes a snippet of one of my bird poems about bushtits. Go read the entire post. It has lots of bird poetry!

(This is a photo from a while back. Recently the sun hasn’t been shining and there have been a couple dozen bushtits feeding at this and a nearby suet feeder several times a day.)

Birds and poetry go together like burgers & fries, hot dogs & beer, red wine & chocolate. Just to name a few select pairings.

perhaps once a year, if I’m lucky

Deb — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:36:37 +0000

Perhaps once a year, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see cedar waxwings. And that is only recently, in the last three years. One year I saw them on the Christmas Bird Count in Lake Oswego. The other two times have been in my backyard. Wait. Make that four times, and once the bird was dead. My cat had gotten him.

They visit the pigeon tree, the devil’s tree, about this time of year. Last year they beat out the band-tail pigeons who were left a bit hungry (and that’s a shame, for they are a species in decline in this area) but this year they came after. The band-tails are very flighty and shy. They bolt like cannon shots, noisy, send feathers flying, when startled (by coming and going from house or car). They tend to like the berries higher up.

The cedar waxwings will go a little further down on the tree (hence the killing by my cat) but they won’t (or haven’t yet) gone too far down, where there are a lot of berries about five feet up. (This is contrary to guide sources. Perhaps I have just not spent enough time with them.)

I was home today, not feeling 100%, and went outside to refresh bird water in the late afternoon, after the rains. I heard bird sounds I don’t often, a straight, high whisting note. And there were birds the size of finches bounding over the sky, from area to area. They headed back and around the yard and neighbors. I got my field glasses and went to the front yard and watched a while. There were many coming and going, I think maybe three groups or six or so. They’d cluster and the evident juveniles begged for food. I finally went back in the house to get my camera, and a few came back to the upper reaches of the trees.

Click through to get to larger photos (they also give you a little more image!), which are not great quality, but you’ll see a bit of the waxwings’ beauty.

I felt a lot better after spending time watching and listening to the birds. The waxwings were all around; over my left shoulder a nuthatch; chickadees were to my near right; the far right held jays and song sparrows. A flicker moved back and forth with his crying and squeaking. And in the distance, the artless grumble of a twin-engine plane.

stretching truth to find truth

Deb — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:02 +0000

Traveling Incognito

The bus driver drops you
Where you need to go
Not the stop you ask for.

Sometimes you start out with
Sneakers and an umbrella
And end up in heels and new

Lipstick, a shrieking black shine
Matches raven feathers, refracts
A desert highway one state past.

Sometimes you end up at your
Mother’s and argue old stories
Then sigh, resigned, at thirteen

Years again — or you stand in line
To taste an important meal, stare
At the back of the dirty neck ahead,

Smell all that stale — yours, his.
Sometimes you’d rather take
The town car, but grooves

Grab wheels from cobbled stones,
Circle in tight arcs. And it’s the crooked
Left forks you’re after — the ones

That crackle like ten broken mirrors
Or follow the slow fingering
Of an Eulerian path in a shiny tattoo.

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Well. This was hard. Writing to my own Read Write Poem prompt this week was incredibly challenging. I think I will try the telling tales idea again, though. I think there is lots to be gained by setting my mind loose from what “was” to what “might just be.”

I did find some truth for myself. Was it good poetry? That’s for revision to tell, another time. This was an experiment. Do lies, exaggerations, fibs or other manipulations shine in ways the truth can’t? Does the subconscious release when we play dress-up?

There’s more here to explore than can examined in the fruit of one prompt’s simple poem.

Thanks to everyone who joined in this experiment. I’m pleased as I can be to point out links to your work found here, even if you didn’t follow the prompt exactly, or at all.

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What is an Eulerian path? Well, it’s this, or maybe one of these. (Hat tip to the Doc for that idea, which came from a Facebook conversation.)

I like vultures, I really do!

Deb — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:05:25 +0000

International Vulture Awareness Day 2009 is hosting a blog festival on September 5. IVAD09 invites you to blog about vultures. Write, film, draw or photograph Old or New World vultures and share your post with the world.

The IVAD09 blog festival will start on September 4 at 19:00 UTC/GMT/Zulu time. Mr Linky will be here to receive your name and permalink.

We ask you to insert the Blog for Vultures badge in your post and link back to this website. Birdorable.com most generously lent us one of its famous designs to use for Blog for Vultures | IVAD09. Yay for the cutest vulture on the web!

(Thanks to The Clade, where I filched this information from. And I bet no one would mind if you did the same!)

Portland Christmas Bird Count this Saturday

Portland Christmas Bird Count this Saturday

Deb — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:47:50 +0000

Yep, it’s that time of year ago when ardent birdwatchers, young & old, beginners & expert, spend the day counting birds.

It’s true.

The annual Christmas Bird Count is conducted by over 55,000 participants across the US. Birders will comb the parks, open spaces, wetlands, rivers and neighborhoods looking for birds. At the end of the day, we’ll get together and share what we found. This year our 83rd Count will be held on Saturday, January 3, 2009. Last year 108 species were tallied by a record 166 participants, making the Portland CBC one of the largest on the continent (but still not as big as Eugene with at 185 observers!)

It’s fun to do, and more counters are always needed. Don’t want to leave your own yard? Well, you can also count your own birds. For more information on the details, go here.

Want to join me? I’ll be in Lake Oswego “leading” the downtown neighborhood of First Addition. We have easy access to restrooms and shelter, should the weather be what is predicted. (As of today: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 40.) We go rain or shine, and meet at Peet’s Coffee in LO at 7AM.

I *have* to find my rain pants.