Four Birds

A very dry spring has concentrated wildlife around the few remaining waterholes. This ibis was feeding at a vanishing water hole when I came along and spooked it. He didn't want to go far and only fluttered up into a nearby tree to grunt and wait for me to leave ...

...which I did after taking this shot.



Sunday, I was grilling two marinated chuck roasts out back when Bear the pup looked up at the sky with rapt, focused attention.

I followed his gaze and there was the swallowtail kite descending above me in a spiral flight path. He was just a speck at first, but grew larger as he gyred downward. I grabbed my camera off of my beloved, dead (or is it?) 1982 GMC truck and started shooting.

This is my favorite bird, and while it's not rare here at all, it's hard (for me at least) to photograph them because they are always moving. They don't fly so much as float, it's the most graceful thing I've ever seen and I never, ever get tired of seeing them, even though it's an almost daily occurence at PFHQ.

I've never seen one perched anywhere, only soaring. Oh, I've seen photos of swallowtail kites in trees, but you know how everybody (but me) photoshops these days. I figure those pictures are made in the computer by clever geniuses (like Sophiemae).

In fact, I've come to believe that even their nests float in thermals and that this bird never uses Terra Firma.

Yes, I'm pretty sure those specks you think are floaters when you stare at a bright blue sky ... uh uh, they're swallowtail kite nests floating high in the stratosphere.

You heard it here.

Here's poor princess Laya high up in an oak tree ... courtesy of Gumbo who is quite the chicken chaser.

A chick magnet he is not ... at least not this kind of chick.


Laya is a fantastic flyer for a chicken and lately she's been getting lots of flight time.


I took this picture from my front porch after our highschool graduation last Saturday. The sun had almost set, but I've gotten in the habit of scanning the canopy for owls lately.

Sure enough, there he was.

Ho hum, another owl.

I'd love to get a picture of this owl eating the waaaaaaay too many squirrels that inhabit PFHQ. They wreck my garden and blueberries ... I don't even bother growing corn anymore because they take the ears up in the oaks and laugh at me with their mouths full.
Rude rodents!

So, I don't shed many tears when I find one floating in the aquaculture tank as the newest member of the detritus club.

But, there was this one squirrel the other day ...
... dang, look at the time!

I gotta go to work!!!