There’s a new contributor today, but before highlighting his photos I’ll put up a singleton sent by regular Stephen Barnard:
I see lots of the exotic European Collared Doves here, but this is the first Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) I’ve seen on Aubrey Spring Ranch. Over the past three years or so the European doves, which are larger and more aggressive than the native Mourning Doves, have been taking over.
And some photos from reader Tom Hennessy with notes (the photos arrived Aug. 25). I’ll call this selection “Six ways of looking at a heron,” and give my own Stevens-esque take. Here are Tom’s notes (indented):
Last week my wife and I visited Duck, NC which is on a barrier island (the outer banks) between the Atlantic ocean and Currituck Sound. The sound is the home to a number of bird species, and while we were on the sound in the evening to photograph some gorgeous sunsets, we saw a number of Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias). Initially, they were in silhouette with the sun behind them, but eventually I got some photographs of them lit by the setting sun. These are very graceful birds, and I was thrilled to get a number of shots of them. I used a Canon 6D with a 100 t0 400 mm lens for most of the heron photos.
At the sight of a heron
Blue in the blue light by the blue water
Even the bards of felinity
Would cry out in wonder.
Among the salty marshes of Duck Island
The only thing moving
Was the beak of the heron.
A crab and a mussel
Are one.
A heron and a crab and a mussel
Are one.
I do not know which to prefer,
The anticipation of noms
Or the nomming itself,
The heron scanning the water
Or gulping a fish.
O thin men of Carolina
Why do you imagine the buttered crab?
Do you not see how the willowy heron
Stalks the marshes?
The waters are placid,
The heron must be fishing.
Finally, a sunset, photographed by reader Karen Bartelt over Badlands National Park:
Sub
“Over the past three years or so the European doves, which are larger and more aggressive than the native Mourning Doves, have been taking over.” Doesn’t this sound related to the Hili dialogue for today and one of the possible reasons for the intrusive sparrow?
Very nice, thanks!
Good job on those herons. I know from experience that they are very wary of sneaky humans with cameras.
One fish
two fish
heron
no fish.
Fortunately, there is a boardwalk along a stretch of the sound in Duck, NC and the herons are not easily spooked by people walking by. We saw herons near the boardwalk on a few occasions so we were close enough for these photos.
Damn! You’re a poet, too?!! (Pretty good!)
When I was a kid and knew nothing about birds I always mistook the cooing of the mourning dove for the hooting of some kind of owl. When I finally learned who the call belongs to I felt very silly, but was somewhat relieved to learn that mistaking dove for owl is apparently common among the bird-call-ignorant.
Yes, that’s quite common. 🙂
Fantastic! 🙂
And since you bring up Stevens, it’s worth noting that the mourning dove (presumably the mourning dove, anyway, as that’s the only species common in Connecticut, where Stevens lived) stars in some of his poetry, in “The Dove in Spring” for example:
Brooder, brooder, deep beneath its walls–
A small howling of the dove
Makes something of the little there,
The little and the dark, and that
In which it is and that in which
It is established. There the dove
Makes this small howling, like a thought
That howls in the mind or like a man
Who keeps seeking out his identity
In that which is and is established…It howls
Of the great sizes of an outer bush
And the great misery of the doubt of it,
Of stripes of silver that are strips
Like slits across a space, a place
And state of being large and light.
There is this bubbling before the sun,
This howling at one’s ear, too far
For daylight and too near for sleep.
* * *
That first line, especially the repeated “Brooder, brooder,” almost always appears in my mind now when I hear the coo of a hidden mourning dove.
Very nice, thanks!
Spectacular sunset and bird photos.
“Thin men of Carolina” that struck me as really funny for some reason. I’ve never been, but I have a feeling the average man in Carolina isn’t thin…that Southern food is just too damn good.
Mmmm, buttered crab!
Congrats on your first ranch Mourning Dove, Stephen!
Tom, lovely heron compositions! I particularly like the penultimate one of the heron on the piling with its perfect reflection and the gull-topped line of pilings behind.
Karen, that’s spectacular!
Jerry–who knew? 😀 I do hope you’re similarly inspired by other submissions now & then!
It’s a sunrise, but I did think it was special.