A Sight to Behold
One of my favorite past times is birding in wetlands. Waterfowl are especially interesting to me. I enjoy their beauty and the way God programmed them to live, raise families and survive in nature. Early in my birding years, the first Anhinga I encountered literally brought me to tears. I was walking around a lake on Hilton Head Head Island, SC, in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. Chasing after a rather elusive Pileated Woodpecker, I was patient hoping for the perfect photography opportunity. I captured numerous “less than perfect” shots of the woodpecker and decided to walk to the shell ring area left nearly 4,000 years ago by Native Indians who traveled to our east coast. This shell ring is amazing, but that’s another entire post for later. As I walked down the trail beside a lake, I glanced over at the water and the view literally took my breath away. There sitting on a piece of an old tree sticking out of the water was a majestic looking Anhinga with its wings spread all the way out showing a gorgeous pattern of white stripes on it’s wings…very Native American looking design to me. Once I cleared my eyes of tears, I began focusing in on the bird praising God as I zoomed and focused. Such beauty, I thought. Thank you, Lord! The bird remained in that perfect position as I was amazed at the time he was giving me to photograph. His reflection in the water was just lovely! I had no idea what kind of bird this was but I DID know that I felt blessed to be viewing it. Once I identified and researched the bird’s identity, I learned that they have no oil glands in their feathers so following diving and feeding in the water, they stand fanning out their wings to allow their feather to dry. Just a little nugget of information but such detail that our Creator went to in their life design. 🙂 Fast forward a few years and I see these interesting birds all the time now in low-country SC, Georgia and Florida. I remember this first experience every single time I photograph these birds years later. Joy...
Read MoreBeing Ourselves
One of the things I enjoy so much about birding is that there is so much beauty from Creation that no one seems to feel the need put on airs, no pun intended. Take this photo of the Tri-colored Heron, for example. He is comfortable with himself in his breeding plumage that I could see him selected for walking down a designer’s platform strutting his stuff. Tall skinny legs…so he can wade in somewhat deep water, body high up but sharply focused eyes seeing through the water to potential dinner. His lengthy, knuckled toes would make a podiatrist or foot-surgeon happy for shoes would certainly cramp his style. But the size of those designer toes have purpose, to grab & hold tightly, balancing our waterfowl seeker-of-food on the move. His long, sharply pointed bill aids him in spearing or clamping down on the prize which he can deftly devour in a quick swallow or take back to the nest for the little fuzzy-headed ones waiting! Now, picture him strutting down the platform, cameras snapping as did mine, capturing the unique and colorful headgear. His entire head can go under water and with just one twist-and-shake of his head, the style is back! So, what’s all the fuss among the humans? Do we not know that God put even more time and effort in our design? Perhaps, it’s simple perspective. At any rate, I stand amazed at the beauty of the birds and their eager display of their acceptance…they are what they...
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National Audubon Society
Help support the efforts of our National Audubon Society in conservation of natural bird habitats. Visit: www.birds.audubon.org