One of the pleasures of not having young children any longer is that I get to do crazy things like have a second Christmas tree in the house. Oh, sure. I know many of you overachievers out there started with two (or more!) Christmas trees from Day One, no matter how many children you had hanging about. But I didn’t even realize people sometimesĀ had more than two Christmas trees in their homes until I was in my forties (Sheltered much?). My second Christmas tree is all about birds. It’s a small tree, and I confess I’m just teasing you today! I haven’t put up what I affectionately call my Birdy Tree yet. Okay, I haven’t put up any tree yet because we’re waiting until my daughter gets home next week. So you’ll just have to wait. Sorry!
Still, birds are on my mind, so I went back into the archives and found some of my fave bird photos. I don’t have a telephoto lens and someday I shall learn to take really proper bird pictures. These are just for fun.
“Talk to the wing, Mister.”
Battle (Japanese, 17th century, I think)
Detail from Still Life with the Four Elements by Jacques Linnard, 1640
Hunter
San Diego Zoo. Love the colorful guy photobombing at the top.
Verdigris Orb Bird
This guy. (Or gal?)
From an art exhibit at Hollins University a few years ago. Macabre. Couldn’t resist.
Look at the claws on that hawk! Beautiful and scary at the same time.
Predator birds are so marvelous!
I also love birds and we always had bird feeders outside, as well as many pets inside ( they are dirty, though); we had albino parakeets, regular parakeets and tow cockatiels.
Where I now live, it is forbidden to feed the wildlife and there are rabbits, squirrels, birds, bats, opossums, groundhogs, deer, foxes, feral cats, wolves, and raccoons. I feel very sad when the weather gets so bitter cold.
Your photos are lovely.
What? Oh, that’s so sad that you can’t feed the wildlife. At least birds should be allowed. And I would totally secretly feed cats. But I guess it wouldn’t be much of a secret if there were always cats hanging about. That really does sound hard to live with. Poor you. š
Sob
We have a heavy influx of Canada Geese in NJ, and they are quite dirty, but everyone respects them, especially when they have babies.
We also have hawks, buzzards, geese, ducks and Canada Geese.
Isn’t it funny that Canada geese fly south to hang out here during the winter?!