I originally named this portrait “Standing Room Only.” I’d never seen a Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) creep chest-high into a pool — then just stand there forever like a Japanese snow monkey. This pose made me laugh as I watched the heron soak up the swirls of his own private day spa. One of my…
The White and the Blue [Birds]
First there was Blue. She came to us from the great blue, the wild blue, as blue as Lightin’ Slim, singing pigeon blues, not Rooster Blues. She came on banded foot, born of two other Blues who gave our Blue her azul feathers and fuchsia feet … in a lineage that swept back through the…
The Legend of the White Gallopavo
The color white represents catharsis in alchemy. It’s the point at which a blackened substance, through heat and reactivity, develops a white crust and then puffs into a cloud inside the alchemist’s flask. It’s the stage at which future possibilities become apparent as a material is transformed from one to the other. And it’s symbolized…
ReTerning to Bolsa Chica
The foot bridge is a crossing over a moat, into a kingdom of feathers at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. In this regenerated, re-planted Bolsa Bay, bird calls and murmurs bubble up from the terns, Sanderlings, scoters, avocets, grebes, plovers, pelicans, sparrows, Willets and egrets who call this haven home. The marsh is barely shielded from…
Re-Capturing the Clapper Rail
The show Bird Note just posted an audio piece on California Clapper Rails in San Francisco Bay. Bird Note covers an eclectic array of bird stories, from behavioral questions to ecological issues. The stories are short audio bits with related blog posts and resources to flesh out the subject matter. As an adjunct to the Clapper…
Bird Verse: Eastern Gods
They are eastern gods — they meditate. (Yes they are.) “The Owls” by Charles Baudelaire (translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay) The owls that roost in the black yew Along one limb in solemn state, And with a red eye look you through, Are eastern gods; they meditate. No feather stirs on them, not one,…
Studies in Godwit
Every so often, I get a request for ‘derivative works’ permission — usually from a wildlife artist who wants to use a photo as the foundation for a painting or print. I particularly love it when the work is used to benefit an animal cause … like this painting of a Brown Pelican I photographed…
The Hook-and-Plastic Club for Birds
Edited on 6/12/12 to add a few links and resources. This was my last shot of the night. Under a California sky, I saw my favorite silhouettes on approach … those pterodactyl forms, Brown Pelicans, gliding past the fallen sun. Knowing I would get just the barest outline of a pelican, I raised my lens…
Parrots Directing Traffic
As my life in California drifts farther behind me, I’m given to fits of sentimentality … especially for the wildlife and wilderness we left behind. Among my emotional favorites are the wild parrots of San Francisco — actually, Red-masked Parakeets or Cherry-headed Conures. These are the celebrity birds featured in Mark Bittner’s The Wild Parrots…
Best 2011 Pics … or Favorite Pics of 2011?
A 12/31/11 Edit: HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Wishing you a beautiful start to 2012! Every year, for five years now, Jim Goldstein at the JMG-Galleries Blog invites photographers to participate in his “Best Photos” project. Bloggers post about their top five or ten images from that year, then send the link to Jim who compiles…
