birds

Thankful Thursday: Winged wonders

Be like a bird
That pausing in her flight
Awhile on boughs to light,
Feels them give way
Beneath her and yet sings,
Knowing that she hath wings.
Victor Marie Hugo

It's National Bird Day, so who else to celebrate this Thankful Thursday than our fine feathered friends!

Here's a photograph of Tama and Itzel, who graced my citrus trees a few years back. I'm grateful for the beauty their mother bestowed on my home, and for the life lessons her hatchlings offered as they broke free of their shells, sprouted long beaks and pinfeathers, and eventually took wing. Their story weaves together tragedy, triumph, and transcendence, as all good stories do, and lingers with me now…. 

(This series of posts chronicles "my" hummingbirds' lives, from egg to fledge.)

Dipping my toes into the LJ waters again

No time for deep thoughts this morning, so I’d thought I’d wade in shallow waters. Here, then, a handful of Monday tangents musings…
 

  1. What is it about grape jelly that fascinates our orioles so?
  2. In scanning my bookshelves this morning, I realized that Timothy Leary’s FLASHBACKS stands right next to L.K. Madigan’s FLASH BURNOUT. Whoa, interesting juxtaposition! Unintentional, I assure you.
  3. One more month ’til DEAR BULLY finds its way into the world! (The release date was shifted from Aug. 23 to September 6.) I’m so excited–and deeply honored–to be part of this project! Granted, it’s a tough subject to read (and write) about, so I’m especially heartened by the favorable reviews. Here’s what Goodeads contributors are saying, in case you’re interested. Oh, and you can read the Kirkus and Booklist reviews on the Dear Bully website.
  4. I’m going to redouble my efforts this week to get back online, ’cause I’m really, really (to the hundred-millionth power) missing my LiveJournal friends.
  5. Speaking of which–and this is so cool, I can’t believe I’m typing it–I’m going to have tea with the lovely   in just a couple of weeks. Live, and in person!

Enough about me…what’s floating through your minds this morning? What’s new, and how’s it going?

A thousand words (or more)

Someone made a comment to me last week that gave me a moment’s pause. In an offhand, joking manner, he mentioned that I’ve posted more photographs than insights on my blog of late. I’m sure he meant no slight, but to be honest, my feathers got a little ruffled.

Harrumph! His point’s independently verifiable, but the implied assertion is mistaken. I’m not posting pictures willy-nilly, I promise you. And I’m not being lazy. It’s just that…well, sometimes the words flow more easily than others. And when words fail, pictures help illustrate my innermost thoughts and feelings. This is one of those times. So here we are again: another trip through metaphor land, another show-and-tell.
 
Life’s been a little hectic around here lately, so my husband and I sought refuge in our favorite oasis. Sometimes you just need to see things from a different vantage point, you know? Pictured here, a great egret surveys the situation.

Beep! Beep! Even roadrunners need a respite now and again.

I don’t think of a desert oasis as a typical habitat for mallards, do you? I don’t know how they got here, but this pair of ducks accommodated quite well to their unusual circumstances. Would that I could be so zen!

High above the desert floor, a red-naped sapsucker forages for food. He pauses for a moment’s rest, perhaps pondering his next move. But before too long, he’s knock-knock-knocking again. Persistence, thy middle name is woodpecker.  

There’s a time for high-flying, and a time for hanging out. I’m slow to learn the lessons this black-crowned night heron apparently knows.

Sometimes it seems as if I’m on an lonely chase, falling further and further behind…

…but this, too, is a matter of perspective. Truth is, I’m surrounded by cheerleaders, and I’m keeping a steady pace.


This pair of photos are from the endangered species merry-go-round at the Living Desert.

I also took a stroll through my backyard garden this past weekend, and I’m so glad I did. Tucked into a tangled mess of citrus leaves, I discovered this magical surprise…

From my picture window, I can easily watch this Costa’s hummingbird’s comings and goings. And someday, if I’m really lucky, I’ll see her hatchlings fly.

It’s been a long while since I’ve practiced the things I learned in my photography class, but there’s a lesson in that, too.
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Branching

1) I came home on Tuesday to the sound of chainsaws in the yard behind me. The neighbor’s gardeners were chopping down all the pepper trees along our fence line! Sanctuaries for untold numbers of finches, mockingbirds, hummingbirds, plus other species I can’t yet identify. Shelter against the blazing heat of summer and the encroachment of suburbia. *weeps*

As I watched them hack away at the tree branches, I felt my own habitat being diminished. I panicked. I called my sister, crying. Then I sobbed on the phone to my husband. But at some point, I shook myself by the shoulders. If you don’t voice your concerns to the right person, I said to me, you have no right to complain. None whatsoever.

So! I grabbed an armful of refrigerated water bottles, slid into my flip-flops, and hurried over to the neighbor’s house. I begged, cajoled and pleaded…on behalf of the trees, the birds, and the environment (natural and man-made). And in the end, he relented. *good graces all around.* Sadly, the gardeners had already chopped back most branches to the trunk. But the homeowner agreed to leave it at that. And since pepper trees are hardy, prolific and fast-growing, the damage will (crossed fingers!) ultimately be undone. 

Hope survives. It always does, in one form or another. This time, it takes the shape of a mockingbird, who this very morning is perched in the highest remaining limb of a pepper tree, singing its little heart out. Hope, the thing with feathers. When we look for it, we find it. 

2) My story took yet another surprising turn, leading me to another mysterious branching of my family tree. I can’t say more than that right now, other than that I’m playing Nancy Drew today, and I’m (re)learning another life lesson in the process. To wit: We typically see what we want to see, discover what we expect to find. But as we learn to detach from expectations, we expand our vision…and that, I believe, adds new dimensions to our writing.

Mockingbird image credit: Duncraft