Raindrops Keep Fallin' on Their Heads

       Happy ducks in the pool nearby as it rained for several hours this morning -- our first significant amount of rain since last year.

A white Rock Pigeon (bring out your magnfying glass) flies under storm clouds.

Poetry: Highway Delay

Highway Delay

I can learn right away to pee downhill
but that doesn't mean that I'm a good camper.
I won't stay our here in eastern Turkey
just because there's a guy over here
with a bright yellow hard-hat and blue eyes
telling me he's dynamiting the mountain
so I have to stop right here to wait
on this highway that beckons more travel.
I don't care how good-looking he is
or that he looked the other way
when I bared my buttocks
between those two composite rocks --
pale yellow streaming down the cliff
toward the green of the Coruh River.

Highway Construction Crewman, Turkey, 2008.

Little Birds, Big Hands

Wild Bird Rescue gives a big hand to help nature raise hatchling birds.

Angeli feeds hastily growing birds with a dropper.

Hatchling American Robins are cared for after strong winds blew their nest from a tree.

Steve feeds a hatchling.

Little bird receives food from a big hand.

A fledgling robin perches on its growing legs and looks out from the incubator.

Little Empid in the Azalea

Least Flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, in photo I found in Wikipedia.

One Sole Purpose

To attract birds.

And it works! More often now I see the Eastern Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Inca Doves, Carolina Wren, Cardinals, Red-winged Blackbird.

Poetry: Hattusha

Strolling Upon the Ancient City of Hattusha

I strolled upon the grass and flowers
that have grown around the stones
a century after the sun beat upon

Turkish workmen shoveling away
tiny amounts of soil before reaching
for their trowels and horsehair brushes

under the watchful eye of the German
archeaologists digging as if un-endingly
the grounds of the ancient city Hattusha

Cursed for one hundred twenty years
the Hattis defied their enemy to bring
life to the mountain surrounded by a wall

built by men but meant by a god to frame
the people walking through the flowers
with thoughts of love and breaking bread.

Rug vendor in Cappadocia.

iPhone Owlet

While Steve held the owlet, Maggie put fresh water in her bowl.

Post processed iPhone photo.

Grouchy Swan

           Dr. Stengle checks on the swan pair that nests along the creek. The male, though, still does not appreciate him approaching their nest. In the foreground, Great-tailed Grackles continue their springtime displays of courtship.

Scissortail Flycatchers

. . . surround us in great numbers, I feel delighted to say!

Stoic Rehabbers

      Though grieving for the sudden loss of BirdManBob, rehabbers at Wild Bird Rescue continued their life-saving work. MissD from Animal Control brought an owlet. Steve and Alicia, with the assistance from Lila, hydrated the owlet and put her in for the night. Though born only a mile away, Wild Bird Rescue must transport her to Lubbock where they have the facilities large enough to raise her to adulthood. I wish they would bring her back here when she is grown!

BirdManBob

      Passed away this afternoon. Everyone in shock yet stoic. Lila will serve as director now.

Lomographical Rotorcraft

           Fish-eye view of a Cartercopter parked in Richard Stark's hangar, Olney, Texas, and at right, very wide-angle view of helicopter cockpit.

Out Birding in Archer County



Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

Cattle Egret

Greater Roadrunner.

       Delightedly we spotted the Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwings, Yellow Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, femail Painted Bunting, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, in addition to the usual gang, namely, Scissortail Flycatchers, Common Grackles, Turkey Vultures, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Canada Geese, coot, Great-blue Heron, Western Kingbird, Purple Martins, Bewick's Wren, White-crowned Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrike, Meadowlark, Cattle Egret, Red-tailed Hawk, among other hawks, a possible kestrel, and heard a Great Horned Owl all night.

Purple Martin house in between storms.

White-crowned Sparrow

       Making a first known appearance to my garden! Photo by Donna Dewhurst.

Baltimore Oriole

        I felt delighted to see an oriole, a male Baltimore, in my garden in the late afternoon yesterday. My plan to plant as many bird-attracting plants as I can has begun to show some benefit (in addition to the added exercise I do). Below I show a picture shared by Planet of Birds of the the Baltimore Oriole.

Terje's Milky Way Time-Lapse

Film by Terje Sorgjerd. Breath-taking.
Check out this great MSN video: Milky Way Time-Lapse

Poetry: Ride a Horse with Me

Do Me a Favor and Ride a Horse with Me

Through pictures and books have I journeyed there
turning the pages that describe life on the pampas
I saunter across those grasslands on my horse
squinting like a gaucho under my sweat-stained hat
strolling along with the rays of the morning sun.

In my living room I have unfolded as many
maps of southern America as I could find.
I hover over them as if I were in another time
kneading the landscape like a cat obsessed
until the clap of a thunderstorm makes me jump.
I curl up and fall asleep.

Unfolding my maps past Tierra del Fuego
Antartica seems to beckon me to go, so
I plan a route beginning from Machu Picchu
sliding down the Andes and then across the pampas
I travel past the Patagonian tip to find myself
standing with penguins -- I'm not dressed in a tux
mind you, but bundled up dry as a bone in Gore-Tex
that seems almost as good as the impermeable feathers
that penguins wear all day and look so good wearing.
I curl up and fall asleep.

We never go anywhere anymore my husband said to me
as I uncurled myself from my sleep and looked up at him --
love of my life who recently began to express his concern
about me falling asleep in a room covered in maps.

Do me a favor, I asked him, and ride a horse with me.

Above and In Hill Country

View of the Edwards Plateau in the Hill Country, Texas.

Two Turkey Vultures fly above the Sabinal River.

Mingus Canyon provides a home for ferns and other species, with a Basswood tree alongside.

Moss covered travertine.

Passion Vine

Worm burrows in rock that at one point, millions of years ago, consisted of mud.

Here we can see the worm burrows left behind by the eroded rock.

Juvenile Blotched Water Snake.

Holes made by sapsuckers on the barks of the Cedars that grow in Hill Country.

Yellow-throated Warbler.

Fishhook Cactus found in only eight counties in the Hill Country.

Two Bedraggled Eagles

     Snows fell heavily and steadily over the eagles, so much so that the flakes covered the camera lens for several hours. Here I glimpsed the two huddling eagles after some of the snow dropped off the lens.

Fledlings at Wild Bird Rescue

 

Strong winds knocked birds out of their nests, including the two hawks shown above (Photo by Bob Lindsay). Wild Bird Rescue volunteers and board members have begun to work toward raising funds to build a raptor center. For now, because Wild Bird Rescue does not have the facilities, they transport the raptors to Lubbock, where they are raised and released there.