A Photo a Week: Birds…belted kingfisher

Nancy, you’ve put up a challenge I can’t resist today: “Birds.”  Since you’ve posted a hummingbird shot, I won’t.  Instead, I’ll share a photo of a belted kingfisher that I took several years ago.  On my way back from watching some fishing birds, egrets and herons, I happened to look up.  There at the end of a bare branch surrounded by green was a bird.  I had my telephoto and snapped the picture with no idea what bird it was.  For some reason, I had an idea that a kingfisher was much larger, but this little guy looks as if he has enough attitude for any bird of any size.

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Spring Sunshine

Spring Sunshine

I position my chair in the sunlight streaming through the front window,
the rest of the house behind me
chill in its winter-to-spring transition.

The heat soaks into my grey fleece top
gradually seeping its welcome way through my skin,
into my bones and the center of my body.

Bushes bow slightly before the wind,
waiting to shed their winter bareness for the new growth of spring,
each bare, brown sword-branch tipped with green.

On the porch, a chipmunk overlooks the buttery daffodils and fragile narcissus
ever so slowly raising their rain-battered heads
from soaked obeisance into erect beauty.

Two goldfinches swoop down, perching in the largest bush,
tiny bird-lanterns heralding the start of another Saturday
as a cloud ship moves regally through the sky ocean.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Free at last

Silent Sunday…#Tweetingnow

Weekly Photo Challenge: Relax…ruffled feathers

Boy, can I use some “Relax“ation today and this weekend!  Tea, reading, watching the Blackhawks play hockey, having a smooth dark beer…all these are relaxing.  Another surefire way for me to relax is to just get out into nature by myself.  It will smooth my ruffled feathers every time.

Bathing

A planet without birds is a planet without angels!
~Mehmet Murat ildan

Birds have wings; they’re free; they can fly where they want when they want. They have the kind of mobility many people envy.
~Roger Tory Peterson

Wordless Wednesday…chillin’