I’ve never anticipated a number this much. Goodbye, 2009, thanks for the lessons. 2010, am I ever happy to see you. I’ll use your symbolic momentum to realign my world. If you happen to be stopping by the blog during this annual switch-over, I wish you an incredible, transformative, beautiful year ahead. Happy New Year! I…
Stick People v. High Voltage
Stick People, the Series Hugh and I have been photographing these stick figures for as long as stick figures have been boarding the London Tube with no feet, or — in this case — meeting unspeakable ends in high-voltage utility boxes.
Baby Booties For Birds
Last night, Hugh and I put baby booties on sea birds. Actually, baby socks made into bird booties. There were grebes and murres in our section of the hospital. More than 400 ailing seabirds were driven by van and flown by a Coast Guard C-130 to IBRRC in Fairfield, California. The birds came from Washington…
Reclaimed: Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds
Reclamation is among my favorite themes — especially as it pertains to nature. I root for the vines overtaking fire hydrants and windblown seeds germinating new habitat in former refuse sites…
Stick People v. Mountain Lion
My mate posted his own photo of this sign online and received the following comment: “Please feed the Mountain Lion your child as sacrifice.” These panels do seem to promote some questionable strategies . . . even if the text advocates sensible human-lion interaction. Stick figures are, after all, internationally fluid symbols. In the absence…
Not-So-Ordinary Black Birds
Until the esteemed Brewer’s Blackbird Sir Swoopsmade a name for himself by dive-bombing pedestrians, there’s a good chance he was just one of many birds in black, hopping along the sidewalks of San Francisco without much notice. On first glance, blackbirds and black-colored birds may seem visually ordinary. But closer inspection always renders a more…
Swoops the Blackbird – Exhibit A in “Mobbing” Behavior
I snapped this on the weekend before national t.v. crews showed up to fuel the celebrity of Swoops the Blackbird. (Click on the image for the larger Flickr version.) ©ingridtaylar Swoops, a Brewer’s Blackbird with a nest of young to protect, perches on the awnings overlooking his brood and buzzes pedestrians who venture too close…
There is a Season … Terns (Alameda Terns)
Lame Byrds pun aside . . . Tern Nation in Alameda Their gravelly call precedes them, these terns with their fuzzy black berets and orange feet. They sound like aerial barflys with too much whiskey and smoke on the voice box. When it’s a row of more than 50 terns — alternately calling to each other…
Who Says You Never See Baby Pigeons?
Pigeons are meticulous, doting parents . . . which is why you probably won’t see many baby pigeons in the wild . . . if at all. Pigeons produce small broods (usually two babies) and tuck them in nests high on ledges — homes which resemble their ancestors’ cliff dwellings. The pigeon parents feed their…
More Raindrops . . .
