Angry bird
Nancy Merrill Photography is sending out challenges now, and when I saw this week’s I knew I had one particular image that showed a certain amount of attitude.
A photo a week challenge: Attitude
Tag Archives: birds
Music fills the sky
I love outdoor concerts, and Tuesday evening I was treated to a band concert played on a lovely stage facing a green hill filled with people enjoying the music.
Pretty music and a lovely venue.
The band is made up of musical professionals in Southeast Michigan. Band directors at school districts across the region and other musicians get together to rehearse and then put on a fun and varied concert for all of us.
These people are good!
It was a lot of fun, especially listening to some pieces that I’ve played myself. It was an entirely different experience to sit in the audience where I got to hear parts of the music I’d never heard before.
What a lovely evening. Children laughed and ran up and down a hill off to the side. Birds sang from the trees, and swallows swooped and twittered overhead.
Swallows turned and swooped to the music.
One little boy in particular wasn’t interested in playing with the other children. He was mesmerized by the band and continually tottered down to the front to get a closer view.
Look between the two adults….see him down there conducting the band?
His mom would come and get him, carry him back up the hill, but the next thing you knew he’d be down front again, engaged in the whole experience.
Sometimes when I’m enjoying a concert at a hall I imagine all those notes rising up and layering high on the ceiling. I think about all the music that’s been played in the hall over the years. I like to think it’s still there, tucked into the curtain material, etched into the paint. Floating in the air.
Accepting well deserved applause.
Tuesday night as I watched the birds flying overhead I thought about this music having no roof, rising up and up into the clouds where it could be enjoyed by the world. Like ripples in still water always moving outward, I imagined the music gliding up into the clouds with nothing to restrain it. Moving into the heavens and then into space.
That thought made me smile. And so did the Southeastern Michigan Wind Ensemble.
You can likely have a similar experience this summer. Check around your town, there’s probably a concert in a park near you. They are mostly free, just bring a chair and spend an evening watching birds and children chatter while you listen to music as it floats on it’s way up to forever.
And then, hopefully, you’ll have a sunset like the one we had on your drive home.
I had to pull off the road, but this picture doesn’t do the sky justice.
And it got better, morphing into this when I got out into the country near home:
Pretty stunning.
It was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.
A great group of musicians.
Lake living – the view from here
Sometimes the clouds just glow.
I am sitting in the living room, keeping one eye on the big picture window that overlooks the lake and the other on my computer screen. With any sign of movement out there the window gets my entire attention.
The doggy jet ski just went by!
I mean, what’s the point of living on the lake if you’re not watching it? Early in the morning the first thing I do every day is check the lake and the sky above it to see whether there’s anything interesting yet.
Morning earlier this week when the moon was full.
There almost always is.
Woman and her dog take a paddleboat ride while fish jumps in joy.
In fact, my Facebook friends are probably tired of getting that early (and sometimes not so early) morning image of the lake outside my window. But I never tire of it.
Summer slide waits for storm clouds to dissipate.
Oh sometimes, perhaps once every couple of days, I leave my picture window and get out on the water. Sometimes we fly out to the ‘big water’ in the ski boat to see what’s new. Perhaps to bob in the warm water and watch the sunset unrestrained by landscape.
Sunset on the ‘big water.’ Picture taken by my sister from our boat.
More often it’s just me and my little kayak that venture out, either in early morning or late afternoon. Sometimes even as the sun is going down, always in search of something beautiful.
An evening paddle.
The lake never disappoints me.
Early night boat wake as the last of the sunset disappears.
So I’m sharing random photos of life on the lake. Just things I’ve seen and captured, moments in time all revolving around sky and water and weather.
Crazy skies over a lake playground.
Sometimes I’m sitting at the house, watching the world go by.
Two guys in their kayaks enjoy a summer day.
Sometimes I’m out in the water letting the sky point the way.
Late evening light as we head home in the boat.
I don’t think there’s a better way to live than on water, any kind of water. A river, a pond, a lake, an ocean. Water changes all the time. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to get the camera (which is rarely far from me) and by the time I get the lens cap off the light has changed, the boat has moved, the sun or moon has ducked behind a cloud.
Just as I’m typing this the sky changed from bright blue with white clouds piling up to pouring down rain. Honest…it was sunny as I was typing the previous sentence and now I can’t see across the lake. Good thing I went down to the dock and got the last image down at the bottom of the post when I did.
An afternoon swim is always good too.
The moment is lost.
A little rain cools things off and never sticks around for long.
I’m always sad for an instant, but then remember that I was thrilled to have seen it at all. Sometimes I even go for a walk or a paddle without a camera, just to prove to myself that I am capable of enjoying the sights without recording them all.
Clouds and water make for a perfect evening.
But that’s very hard for me. I seem to see almost everything as a series of images. Sometimes I can’t help myself but to point out something to the people I’m with. The angle of a tree, the light behind a building, the shape of a cloud.
Trees frame a visitor to our dock.
My family usually just nods and smiles as they indulge me. So here I am, sharing with you, these random water and sky images. Because I can’t help myself.
I hope you’ll indulge me too.
Clouds gather every afternoon before our daily rain.
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Birds
I have so many photos of birds it was hard to choose.
But I always liked this little guy. Nuthatches are shy so I loved that he finally trusted me (or got hungry enough) to stop for a treat.
What I did on Mother’s Day
I’m not a mother, unless you count Katie-girl and she doesn’t recognize holidays. My own mother has been gone almost fourteen years, and though I miss her every day, this year I just didn’t have a traditional Mother’s Day post in me.
So I went out to my favorite park to spend some time among the birds that she loved. I feel like I got to spend some time with her while I wandered the woods and wetlands.
It’s a green spring here in Michigan.
There were lots of people, large groups, families, mostly noisy people there on this nice Sunday after days of rain. I wasn’t expecting to see much in the way of wildlife. But I was wrong.
I saw so much I don’t think I can share it all with you in one blog. So maybe I’ll just share with you a few (define few) of my favorites and not try to take you along on the whole walk.
While I was taking pictures of shaggy hickory bark I heard wings fluttering near my head. It was this little guy being quite persistent about wanting a treat.
Hey lady!
I held out my hand and he hopped right down. He was thoroughly disgusted that I didn’t have anything for him.
Seriously? Is this some kind of joke?
He flew off and sat on a branch talking to me. OK, OK I said, reaching into my pocket for a bit of seed.
Thanks lady!
You win.
But the highlight of this walk were the pileated woodpeckers. I saw one as soon as I turned off the main path. I heard him first and I stopped to look.
Looking for lunch.
I got to show the family walking behind me this amazing bird. He didn’t seem skittish and I watched him for a long time before moving on.
The family, now ahead of me, was excited to see a herd of deer not too far off the path. I didn’t expect to see anything when I got further up the path, but there they were.
All these people are interrupting my lunch!
I was looking for trillium, a flower that blooms in the woods here in Michigan. Around the next corner I saw a few, smaller this year than usual, but still pretty. I crawled down a steep creek bank to get an image…
Small white blossoms shine among last years leaves on the forest floor.
…then climbed back up the bank to sit on a bench and enjoy the scenery. As I flipped through the photos I’d taken so far I heard a pounding. What was that? I looked around and found a pair of pileated woodpeckers flitting around down along the creek. I crept up closer and watched.
There must have been good stuff in that stump.
They didn’t stay anywhere for long, and I have a lot of really bad images of blurry bird parts. But finally one of them stopped long enough for an unobstructed view.
A good spot to rest for a moment.
I sat there a long time, watching them and smiling. Eventually I realized a little friend had ventured up on the stump next to me. Begging for a bit of a treat.
Looks like he’s had plenty of treats already today.
Of course I tossed him a seed or two. Or three.
Just being in the woods was fun, even when there weren’t any birds to entertain me. The spring is so green, and everywhere I looked there was something interesting.
Tree art.
Time was passing and I felt like I needed to head back to the car. I was as far away as you could be and still be on the nature trails. I picked up my pace, intent on getting home to make dinner. Once again I heard fluttering near my head. This time it was a nuthatch wanting my attention. They’re usually a bit shy, though I’ve had them eat out of my hand before.
Got any more lady?
I held out a few seeds and the nuthatch flew in and grabbed one and then quickly flew off to some fallen trees. He did this a couple times, returning to my hand so quick that I didn’t think he was eating the seed. And then I saw him doing this.
No one will find it under here!
He was hiding the seed for future meals! I think anyway, maybe he was just doing aerobics. Each time he took a seed he flew to a different spot, depositing the seed and then rushing back for more. Such a little clown.
And while he was doing that, as I was standing there in the woods, interrupted on my rush home, I saw out of the corner of my eye this couple:
I’m just guarding my woman.
They were just across the creek. She was busy eating and he was busy showing off. There were several turkeys over there, but he was the only one obviously in a relationship.
I turned and headed back toward the parking lot. On the way I ran into another cute little woodpecker. He didn’t really want his picture taken so he moved around behind the old cattail reed he was working on.
You can’t see me. Right?
But I’m patient and eventually he worked his way around the stalk, intent on getting to something.
I’m not going to look at you lady!
I was almost back to the boardwalk and I figured I’d check out the heron rookery. Turns out it was really quiet, but there was plenty of other things to look at there, including some beautiful lily pads…
Colors everywhere, even in the water.
…and this guy.
Just doesn’t seem like a comfortable way to nap.
Most of the birds I saw during the day were making noise. That’s how they got my attention, whether they wanted it or not.
Singing her heart out.
But some were pretty camouflaged while looking for good stuff.
What’s that over there?
Until one of them looked up to see who was watching them.
You looking at us?
It was such a beautiful day, this Mother’s Day, I hope you got to see or do something fun, with family or on your own. I realize how lucky I am to have such a wonderful place to explore with my mom.
I know she loved it there as much as I did.
I’ll pose for you lady! I brought my own lunch!
Epic fight
Cee has a black and white photo challenge out right now – “Through a window.” I’ve already been doing that a lot, looking through a window, so I figured this would be an easy one.
This is MY jelly!
And just today at the oriole feeder outside my window I captured a prolonged fight among hungry birds. You might even say they were angry birds.
Really? What gives you the right to yell at ME?
But in the end, though I deliberately left part of the window frame in the shot just to use one of them in the black and white challenge…
I’m telling you, all I said was that it was MY jelly!
…I couldn’t bring myself to take the color out.
Guess I’m going to have to find another window.
Angry birds are lonely birds.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Unlikely
It’s unlikely…
…that he will successfully get any of the hummingbird food out of this feeder.
But he can try.
Well darn it all!
WordPress photo challege: Lines
The last day before a new photo challenge pops up I went for a walk to find a particular thing. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did notice the lines in the wetlands, made up mostly of cattails from last year.
But notice — not all the lines are plant material.
Birding with a friend
Yesterday I got to go on a dog-less adventure with a friend. It rare that either one of us spends time at a park without our girls, but today it was all about the birds. With our pockets filled with bird seed and cameras slung around our necks we headed out to my favorite park on a perfect morning under clear blue skies to see what we could see.
Almost immediately we noticed a trio of sandhill cranes snacking, not far from the trail, in a grassy wetland meadow that had been burned by the rangers days before. I especially liked how they blended with the lines of the grass stubs.
If it weren’t for that red head patch I might have missed seeing this guy.
It didn’t take them long to notice us and head our way. They were expecting breakfast and I guess they can’t read the signs up in the parking lot — “Do not feed the cranes.” Since they were almost as tall as we were we decided not to begrudge them a bit of the seed in our pockets.
After breakfast preening.
Also they were blocking the path and we had to pay the toll in order to move along. I think it’s a racket they have going there, but I’m not going to report them, because it was a wonderful experience to be this close.
Stunningly elegant.
I wouldn’t want you to think we spent all day with the cranes. We moved one way on the path and they went the other way, looking for their next patsy and another handout.
Further into the woods we were approached by several chickadees and a titmouse or two. We stopped to share our provisions with them all.
Choosing the perfect seed.
Some of them were quite choosy, and took their time picking out the perfect seed. Others barely touched down before they were off with their prize.
I’m outta here!
Directly over my head was a curious woodpecker. We thought he might come down and join the banquet but he stayed up in the tree watching me. When he turned a certain way the sun caught the bright red cap on his head. He made me smile and I dropped the seed in my hand to get a quick image of him.
Whatcha got down there lady?
I’m sure that made him smile too because after we moved on he enjoyed the meal I left behind.
Some of the birds were harder to spot than others; this blue heron sat silently in the reeds watching us go by. He wasn’t in the mood for birdseed. If we’d had fresh fish in our pockets things might have been different.
See him off in all those cattails?
Our trail followed the shore of a lake which is teeming with birds and wildlife. In the center of the lake is an island with a rookery, the tops of the trees filled with huge nests, inhabited year after year by a large group of herons
The heron condos are full up this year.
I need a longer lens to really get a good look, but you can see how fascinating it is to watch the comings and goings of the adults as they prepare for the arrival of the young ones. Later in the season it gets even more fun to watch the teenage birds try out their wings.
Maybe it was the noise at the rookery that sent that other heron off to stand among the weeds for a little peace and quiet. Understandable.
Heading out to get lunch. Or just to find a peaceful place for a nap.
Back on the boardwalk and almost back to the car we came across these guys.
Dancing to their own beat.
There were several of them all lined up, mostly staring up at the sky. I’m not sure if they were watching for the space shuttle to go by overhead, or were doing some sort of mating dance. Either way I enjoyed watching them. Look at all their colors shining in the sun!
And just so you don’t think we ignored anything without wings…
Thanks for the treat lady!
…here’s a couple of non-bird things we ran into. Not literally. Cause this guy is not someone I want to get that close to.
Whatever kind of snake this is, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen.
So now you’ve seen the most interesting things we saw yesterday. We were only going to be out there for a coupe of hours, but it was so much fun that we ended up staying well into the afternoon. It was a perfect way to spend a spring day.
Even though we didn’t spend it with our dogs.
Thanks for the grub ladies, come back any time!
Change Is Hard 