Heritage Round These Parts

       My friend Ellen wrote, "If we are the sum of our parts, as history defines, in Wichita Falls remarkable people embody that perception." She added that, "It [heritage] is more than a house. It is our clothing, our manners, customs, buildings, memories, origins, businesses, leisure, animals, jobs, all encompassing countless integrated daily lives [ . . . ]" It would not occur to Ellen, modest and altruistic, that she belongs to that group of remarkable people who embody the conception of which she speaks! The organization to which she devotes some of her time, the Wichita County Heritage Society, and its other remarkable volunteers, occasionally host a visit to some of the homes, businesses, and buildings which Ellen mentions in her piece. Find Ellen's full note here: WCHS Site
      Today we travelled to Henrietta, Texas, a hot spot of history. My photographs do not show the buildings or the homes, but only the objects that make part of their owners' memories.

             We heard that this jar of over one hundred fifty years in age contained a small iron kept safely since the 1920s with a note from its owner's mother, "[ . . . ] this small iron that [name] gave to me [ . . . ] I give to you now as a love gift [a wedding gift]." And such is part of the heritage of which Ellen writes.

              Loving iconography and animals, I focussed my camera on every piece or dog I saw.

Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist!

D's dogs would rather join us than remain inside her cottage.

          Remington sculpture stands before an historic sign announcing the Pioneer Days, still celebrated today in Henrietta. The objects people own show part of what makes them happy, and part of their heritage.

Cotton Sack.

Revisiting Lake Arrowhead

Snow and Cattle Egrets.

Great White Egrets

Little Blue Heron

           I found in an old, dusty, file in an old computer photographs that I took on June 24th, 2008, of birds on a little island on Lake Arrowhead. Other species I saw there: Great-tailed Grackle, Turkey Vulture, and Canada Geese.

Great Blue Herons nesting. A Snowy Egret watches.

Neotropic Cormorant

Golden in Gray

Gray County, Texas.

        MyMrMallory and I interrupted a Golden Eagle standing along the road of the native grasslands in Gray County. The eagle took a running leap into the air and resumed his hunting. A hawk, feeling threatened by the immense eagle, attacked him in flight.

American Turkeys.

House Sparrow, female, and her hatchlings.

       We had a good day, birding-wise, in addition to having watched  the remarkable Golden Eagle, we saw a large flock of Lark Buntings, Western Kingbirds, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Meadowlark, Cardinals, Great Blue Heron, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks, Rufous-headed Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Killdeer, Turkey Vultures, Turkeys, and countless birds we sped by so fast that we could not identify.

Lark Bunting on a cow patty surrounded by flowers.

Antelope.

Deer.

Gail's Birds

      I visited the South Plains Rehabilitation Center located in Lubbock, Texas. Gail took the found fledgling Great Horned Owl in her arms, weighed him, and then, with hemostats, gave him mice to eat. He ate with relish. Gail received another owl that same afternoon, and fed him, too. And he seemed mischievous by clamping down his beak so hard against the hemostats that Gail could not retrieve them until he let go.

Gail and the owl I brought to her.

He held the hemostats in his beak.

He looks comfortable and satisfied in Gail's arms after his meal.

Linda, from Amarillo, gently held one of the satisfied owls.

Gail took the owls to the flight rooms. Ours jumped from her arms and flew up onto a perch.

We both felt happy that he seemed strong enough to fly.

Gail nurtures resident owls. Two Barn Owls (above) live year-round at South Plains.

The Barn Owls above are parents to chicks, which Gail raises and then releases in the wild.

These nestling Barn Owls were born at South Plains.

The juvenile Golden Eagle above suffers from head trauma after colliding with a car.

He will remain under Gail's care until he can fend for himself in nature.

Westward with Owl

Westward with Owl. A good day for a birder. I began by watching a Painted Bunting and several females at the feeders at Wild Bird Rescue. Then along Highway 82 I spotted an oriole, nine Swainson's Hawks, a raven, and a Ground Dove. The treat today included delivering a found fledgling Great Horned Owl to Gail at the South Plains Rescue. There I saw Percy, a resident (very old) pelican among several resident or recuperating owls, hawks, and a Golden Eagle.

iPhone image of the fledgling Great Horned Owl, post-processed with 100 Cameras app.

Growing Eagles

Raptor Center Camera

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.