UP, UP, And Away... And Autumn Leaf Of The Day #71

 

"A soul that smiles in empathy is a soul that blew away the sadness as the wild wilds blew. A soul that parts its lips is a soul that smiled away the sadness, as the autumn leaves flew... ."

~Jayita Bhattacharjee

There is no real sadness in autumn, especially when by conservative accounts, about 8 thousand birds of all kinds have just flown over your head. There were probably more snow geese than any other kind of bird, but there were great numbers of Northern Pintail and Greater White-fronted geese as well!

It's a wonderful feeling to see, and hear, the phenomenon of a great number of migratory birds all flying off at once! I've mentioned this before and I will be mentioning this again, so bear with me. I see it, and by the next day I have to question my own memory as to whether or not it was as glorious as I remember it to be!

And to my delight, I know it was!

 

~Me

Fly Dry... A Public Service Message And #69

 

"November at it's best ... 

with a sort of delightful menace in the air."

 

~Anne Bosworth Greene

 

Meet the Cedar Waxwing. I think I have probably shared this beautiful bird before, you might even have noticed them flying about in your own yard, but I bet you didn't know that, as they fly about sort of  manic and sometimes engaging in an odd kind of darting back and forth, what might happening is ... well ... they might actually be drunk! You see, some of the fruit waxwings love so much, like these berries, tend to ferment, which can lead to a drunk bird, or birds, flying about the neighborhood, singing off key, chirping strange bird words, and pooping any doggone place they want, with NO REGARD for anyone.

 

 At all.

 

There, I said my peace. And no, I didn't get hit by any drunk waxwing poopiness, but that's a weird enough fact about these wonderful birds to properly amuse me. Another fun fact is that somehow they just know when you are doing a photo of them. How do I know this? Because every time I try to get a photo of them, they tuck their wingtips, and tail tips, between branches so you can't see the color in the photographs. They have other distinctive markings, so I can always tell when it's them, but I sure would like to show off the whole bird because the wing and tail tips are quite lovely. Quite unique. Sigh. I love them anyway, and I miss them, so much, when they continue on their migratory path. These birds are fascinating, go read about them!

Cedar Waxwing

Drunk Birds In Texas

 

~Me