Michael Price wrote:
>
> Hi Tweets,
>
> Gerald Hamilton writes:
>
> >a couple of Cinnamon Teals
>
> Starting their move, finally.
>
> >Again,
> >nothing extraordinary during during this quieter period between the
> >departure of the winter migrants, and the arrival of the migrant and
> >summer resident songbirds.
>
> Watching the emergence of the colors of an Alternate plumage through the
> bird's drabber Basic plumage on just about any bird is extraordinary.
> Watching and hearing a first-winter male sparrow experimenting with what
> will eventually be its territorial song is extraordinary. Watching two or
> three thousand distant scaup on their way to a feeding area, reflecting the
> evening sunlight so they collectively look like thousands of stars in panic
> flight is extraordinary. Considering the likely mileage he's putting on to
> and from each year, saying hello to an old pal such as the male Tufted Duck
> Aythya fuligula back for his fourth winter at Lost Lagoon is extraordinary.
> A starling in the light close-up is extraordinary. That there's any birds
> left after the cats, dogs, towers, pesticides, clear-cutting, development,
> oil-spills we've unleashed on them is extraordinary. The extraordinary is
> all around you. But, yes, sometimes the species count drops a bit this time
> of year.
>
> >I keep praising my Creator for
> >creating the mydrids of winged fowls that sing symphonies for me as I
> >stroll the fields and thickets. It sure carries me away from the clatter
> >and screeches of conveyors and machinery at my work-a-day world, and
> >draws me closer to my Creator.
>
> Fascinating, isn't it? Where the average bird is currently afizz with
> hormones and aggression, and each bird's song a hormone-driven territorial
> threat of war and/or a plea for sexual attention, we humans imbue these same
> utterances with a serenity and a religiosity the bird not only couldn't
> grasp but could never experience, as such would be antithetical to the
> bird's purpose in singing in the first place. Extraordinary. '-)
>
> Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
> Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
> mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
> Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

..................Beautifully said!!!!!!!!!!
......It never ceases to amaze me when I ask people who are
driving through the refuge if "they saw anything interesting?", only to
get the stupifying(at least to me) reply: " Oh, nothing much!!!"
Amazing!!!! I see birds and wildlife 'everywhere'!! I guess, in their
rush to see 'everything', they notice 'nothing'!!! How about the 2 ducks
chasing each other around; the eagle diving down to grab a fish in its
talons; the Blue Heron , in a lightning fast dip, nabs a fish in its
bill; the mama raccoon leading here 3 little ones across the road; a
coyote hungryly looking at the ducks he can't reach out on the pond; a
Western Painted Turtle sunning himself on a piece of bankside wood, the
mydriad variations of plummage a breeding plummage emerges.......on and
on and on!!!!!!!! And oh, how about that Horned Owl guarding her fuzzy
little ones in that nest in the old maple tree. How about the brilliant
fields of yellow Charlock, and the blue Baby Blue Eyes blooming in the
fields right now??............ Oh, if only people could stop long enough
to see what is there, and let the winged and non-winged creatures come
to them, and be able to teach then the simple , revealings lessons of
life that would enrich their so fruitfully. Who knows, they may even
meet the Master along the way, the great Teacher of abiding love and
kindness for all creatures big and small-----maybe even 'all' their
fellow humans.
......Bye now. Do take care, fellow birders.

Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net