Posts in Category: Sunday
Cape May Warbler. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am blessed again this year to be at Magee Marsh, on the shores of Lake Erie, for spring migration. Every day at the marsh is a new show, as new waves of Warblers and other song birds reach the shores of the lake, and stop for a day (or two) to stock up before crossing the waters. Two days ago it was all Yellow Warblers (resident nesting birds) and Yellow-rumped Warblers, with a few Palm Warblers left over from the previous wave. Yesterday the Cape May Warblers (like the bird pictured here), the American Redstarts, Warbling Vireos, and smaller numbers of the “next wave” birds came in. Today????
Migration has always fascinated human beings, probably since we stopped migrating with the seasons ourselves. We watch the birds flow north in the spring with an appropriate sense of wonder. There is an aspect of renewal…especially with all the birds in fresh spring plumage…and a measure of hope with it. It is good to be alive in the spring when the song birds are moving! The weekend crowds at Magee Marsh and other migration hot-spots along Lake Eire and the other major flyways, attests to just broad the appeal is. Maybe a third of the crowds are birders and photographers, drawn every year, but two thirds are just regular citizens, out for a day to experience something extraordinary. The cries of delight, from children and adults, compete with the songs of the birds. It is good. The generous eye sees only good in these crowds (though the birdwatcher/photographer in me might prefer a less crowed boardwalk to work from :). You can feel the good energy…very similar to what you feel in a really inspired praise service at an “outgoing” church. God is praised in the migration of song birds, and we are privileged to join in the worship.
Happy Sunday!
In-town Black-crowned Night Heron. Happy Sunday!
Black-crowned Night Heron, Factory to Pasture Pond, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am pretty sure this Black-crowned Night Heron has nested at Factory to Pasture Pond for at least four years. At the very least, I have seen it (or another BCNH) there, spring and summer, for each of those years. Now Factory to Pasture Pond is my own name for the place, and it makes it sound much grander than it is. It is actually just a little wetland caught between Factory to Pasture Road and two paved parking lots…the remnant, perhaps of a more extensive wetland that was bisected by the road and contained by pavement years ago. I visit it regularly for dragonflies in the summer. There are turtles, and, at least arguably, Black-crowned Night Herons, and a variety of other common nesting birds…but it is surrounded by factory buildings on 3 sides. By August, in a hot dry summer, it can shrink by a third, but it is a year round pond. And it is only a few blocks from Main Street Kennebunk…definitely “in-town”…not exactly urban, since we are talking a village of 5612 here, but pretty close. 5612 humans and at least two Black-crowned Night Herons. 🙂
I am always amazed at how resilient the creation is. We can pave it. We can cover it over with factory buildings and our houses. We can till it and plant all manner of intensive crops. We can ditch and drain wetlands. We can channelize rivers. We can rearrange and manage the landscape to meet our needs and purposes. But creation, what we call nature, always finds a way back in. Roots crack pavement. Water seeps under roads. Silt fills channels and willows and cattails grow. Great Horned Owls nest in cemeteries. Black-crowned Night Herons nest in parks and on golf courses…and in tiny remnant wetlands right in town. The generous eye sees all this reclaiming of the space we think of as our own, as human space, as a good thing. Creation refusing to take no for an answer. Creation reminding us, always, that we a part and parcel of all that lives, and that all that lives is essential to our being…to our being filled with light and life and hope.
So, seeing the Black-crowned Night Heron at Factory to Pasture Pond in down-town Kennebunk delights me. It is what the generous eye delights to see. Happy Sunday!
Nuthatch courtship. Happy Sunday!
White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk Bridle Trail, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I had walked a long ways on the Kennebunk Bridle Path yesterday without seeing anything of note. In fact I had turned around and was headed back to the car when a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches flew across and landed in trees off to my right. Camera up! I could only see one of them and he was off deeper into the woods toward the river before I got any good shots, but I stood and waited, and, sure enough, he circled back, foraging 20 to 40 feet up in the trees. That is when I noticed the second Nuthatch sticking out of a hole in a tree trunk 40 feet in. I got lots of good shots of both the foraging male, as he worked his way around the nest hole, and the female with various portions of her body out of the hole looking to see what the male was up to. After maybe 10 minutes the male worked his way down to the nest hole with a bug in his mouth, and there was a little dance all around the hole as he, apparently, teased her with the bug before transferring it to her. This is the best shot from that sequence. I watched them for 20 minutes more, and got some excellent shots of both, but the little courtship dance was the best of the action. They were totally oblivious to my presence on the trail (one of the advantages of a 2000mm equivalent lens), but still, I felt like I should move on and leave them in even more peace to get on with nest building and courtship.
How can anyone not feed privileged, blessed indeed, to get to see something like the courtship of Nuthatches? Just that little intimate moment out of their lives. I would like to believe that there is not a soul so deadened that it can not be moved by such an encounter. But I have seen the damage the world does to human beings…to children most of all…damage that produces such a shell of indifference; such a self-centered, in-grown view; such an active malice toward life and the living…that even the courtship of Nuthatches, should they look up long enough to see it, is as likely to generate anger or mischief as it is to engender love. That is the opposite of the generous eye. That is the stingy eye, that shelters darkness inside. That is so sad. It has to break the heart of a loving God. Which is why God spent the love of God in Jesus…so that the hardened heart, the stingy eye, might be renewed…the deadened soul reborn.
And those who do feel a sense of wonder and privilege in seeing the Nuthatches courting, but who feel as yet no need of God? I can only say…you are just a step away from the Kingdom of God…perhaps even citizens of that Kingdom unknowing. There is no disguising the generous eye…there is no hiding the light within.
Happy Sunday!
Bucks County April Wildflowers. Happy Sunday!
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, Bucks County PA
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
This is a panel of some of the April wildflowers we found on our unscheduled stop at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in Bucks County Pennsylvania. We will not see our Maine wildflowers, with the possible exception of Trout Lily, for another 4 weeks at least…six for some of them, so it was a real treat to be in the woods this early with blooming wildflowers. I am certain by the end of April, if Bowman’s Hill is any example, that the woods of Bucks County are carpeted with wildflowers.
We have here, clockwise from the upper left…Bluebells, Marsh Marigold, Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Breeches, Wood Poppy, and Spring Beauty. They were all taken with the Sony HX90V, processed in Lightroom, and assembled in Coolage.
I find it difficult to understand how anyone can look a the abundant beauty of spring wildflowers and not see the work of God who creates in love…who loves to create. Even before Jesus broke into my life and demanded that I take notice, I went in awe of the beauty of spring. Awe must have its origin…if we call it Nature…or if we call it The Universe…we are already attributing intelligence and creative love to something bigger than ourselves…something that is so big that it encompasses all that is, including us. It is only one more step to calling what we feel in awe of “God.” And if God then the author of all that is, who moves by the spirit to give us life. And, in my experience, if God, then the father of Jesus Christ, who gives us new life when the troubles of this world, and our own failings, have dulled and deadened us. I can not see the wildflowers of spring without awe…without praise…without the joyful response of my spirit to the spirit of God moving in love in the world.
May your eye be generous and your being full of light. Happy Sunday!
Goldfinch in the Snow. Happy Sunday!
American Goldfinch, back deck feeding station. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
We are having a minor spring snow event today and tomorrow. No significant accumulation (well maybe an inch by tomorrow night), and nothing compared to what they got from this storm further west…but still enough to remind us that we don’t put our snow boots and winter coats away until May 1st here in Maine. My wife had to find her mittens to get to church this morning. This American Goldfinch was one of several birds hanging close to the feeders in the snow. I expect we will get lots of traffic on the back deck today and tomorrow as birds try to find enough sustenance to keep warm in the unseasonable weather.
Jesus reminds us that God takes care of the Goldfinch, no matter what the weather does, and that we should take that as evidence that God will care for us…that we should not be anxious for how we will stay alive, but, the implication is, devote ourselves to living in a way that demonstrates our faith in God, our thankfulness for the blessings of God, and a generosity of spirit that embraces our fellows and all that lives.
The Goldfinch in the snow reminds me of God’s blessings in my life…but it also challenges me to take a look at how well I live…how well I embody faith, thanksgiving, and generosity. The answer today is the same as it always is, and always will be…not well enough…or at least not as will as I think I ought to. The hardest lesson of all to learn, far harder than trusting God for our daily bread and shelter, is trusting God for our goodness. If God takes care that I stay alive…surely God will also take care that I live well…with faith, thanksgiving and generosity. Being anxious about how good I am is just as misguided as being anxious about what I will eat or what I will wear.
God is good. Only God is good. We live by faith in God or we do not live at all. When I look at this Goldfinch in the snow, I do not see a trace of anxiety…no fear…no worry…just the impulse to get on with it…to get on with life…no matter what the weather does. Yes, you say, easy for the Goldfinch…that is just the way it is made. But isn’t that what Jesus was saying? That is the way we are made. We only have to let ourselves live that way. By faith. All else follows.
Happy Sunday!
Florida Scrub Jay. Happy Sunday!
Florida Scrub Jay, Merritt Island NWR, Titusville FL
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
This is my third post of Florida Scrub Jay pics from my encounter with a pair on my last day in Florida for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. It was an extra, as in unplanned, day. My flight home was canceled, so, after a morning in the flied with my daughter Sarah, and after dropping her off at the airport in Orlando for her fight back to New Mexico, I made one last run out to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to catch the afternoon/evening light. Since it was extra time, I took the time to go look for Florida Scrub Jays where Sarah and my friend Rich had seen them one day when I was busy teaching a workshop. And they were there! Just two, likely a pair, but it was my first FSJ encounter in over 10 years, and my first ever on Merritt Island. I took way too many pictures. This is a collage of two shots that provides evidence for my contention that the Florida Scrub Jay is the most beautiful of eastern Jays.
The encounter was even more special because it was shared. A couple, the husband a fellow photographer, came up behind me and, feeling generous, I waved them up to stand with me so they could get photos too. (By then I was confident that the Scrub Jays were not alarmed at our presence at all…and in fact they were still sitting on their bushes when we decided we had devoted enough camera memory to them and walked on.) Sharing an experience like this with others, even if strangers, deepens my pleasure considerably. It is the shared wonder…awe reinforces awe…and the result is more joy. It is even more intense if you are sharing the experience with someone you already love, and I really wished Sarah were still there in those moments, but it is impossible not to love the ones you share with…or at least it is for me. I felt like I was radiating good will…good will that encompassed the cooperate Scrub Jays, and certainly my fellow photographer and his wife, in one big bubble of delight.
And I feel a bit of that right now. Partially it is memory, but it is also this sharing by proxy that is this post. I intend for you to share in the joy of discovery, in the wonder I experienced there in the field with these Jays. The thing about the generous eye is that light builds on light. In generosity you always get back as much or more than you give. Always. Because the light in you is met by the light in others, and is amplified. That is the way it works. Always. God is just good that way. God is good in all ways.
Happy Sunday!
Winter Robin. Happy Sunday!
American Robin, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
I went out, after clearing the next to the last snow storm out of the drive before dawn, to catch the early light on the fresh snow at Roger’s Pond, and to see if the Eagles were in. I was so early the fruit tree by the picnic shelter was still in shadow, but the Robins were there, perched on the snowy branches, eating fruit at a astonishing rate. It is a classic winter Robin shot, with the snow capping the red fruit, and the open beak of the bird.
Okay, so seeing a picture like this, I have to think of the time Jesus once told his disciples that they should not worry themselves about what they would eat. “Look at the birds of the air;” he said, “they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” These days, Robins can live through a Maine winter. They get by, at least in part, on the ornamental fruit trees we have planted around our houses. If food gets scarce, they do what they did before we got here…they go as far south as needed to find food. And, to be honest, not all of them make it. But that does not diminish the truth of what Jesus was really saying. Jesus was not saying that we would not have to work for our living (birds certainly work for theirs), or that life would not sometimes be hard to the point of breaking…he was saying that we should not worry about it…that we should simply trust in God and get on with it. We should have confidence that we matter to God as least as much as the birds. We should live with confidence, firmly founded on faith in a loving God.
In my experience, this is one of the hardest lessons faith has to teach us. And I think of that, and am both challenged and encouraged, when I see a winter Robin, eating red fruit in a snowy Maine tree. That too, is part of the generous eye.
Happy Sunday!
Sunset through Beach Rose. Happy Sunday!
Sunset through beach rose, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
The Beach Rose, in December, going on for Christmas, looks brittle and broken…a tangled mass of hairy, thorny stems without much redeeming beauty…but put it in front of the setting sun, and suddenly it is alive again, and full of light. It is all a matter of perspective…of attitude. I find it interesting that these two words, which name the physical relationships between objects, have come to also mean our mental, or even spiritual relationship to the world around us. Perspective names the effect of distance on the apparent relative size of objects between us and the visual horizon…and attitude, in its physical sense, names the angle of incline of objects relative to a plane (a ship on the sea has an attitude measured in degrees, relative to the sea). In the mental/spiritual sense, when we say we have perspective on something…we mean we are viewing it in right relationship to the really important things in our life. If someone says you need an attitude adjustment, they mean that that you need to change your “slant” toward the world. Instead of measuring it in degrees, we say there are bad attitudes and good attitudes…cheerful attitudes and sour attitudes. It is a matter of how you are holding yourself in relation to the world.
The generous eye, the eye that both open to let in the beauty and wonder of the world around us, and open wide enough to let the light within illuminate the beauty and wonder without…which is really saying the same thing twice…determines both our perspective and our attitude.
You can choose how you see the tangled mass of Beach Rose stems. At least at sunset, when the light is shinning in your eyes.
Happy Sunday! And a blessed season, as we approach the celebration of the rising, the birth, of Jesus, son of God and son of man…who taught us to look with generous eyes, and whose light fills our whole beings.
Three cranes standing. Happy Sunday!
Sandhill Cranes. Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Snow chased us down from Santa Fe through Albuquerque to Socorro, and we woke on our first morning at the Festival of the Cranes to overcast skies and a fresh white cover on the mountains rimming the valley of the Rio Grande. I was there for the flyout, and watched the Cranes take off in the half-light from the ponds along Route 1 on the way into Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and then worked my way around to the backside of the north loop, to Coyote Deck. There was a cluster of cranes feeding along the dyke just north of the deck. The light on the refuge was subtle, and there was still a touch of frost on the fields. These three cranes were coming up the north slope of the dyke to cross to the main group in the field to the south. Something in their attitude, framed against the weeds beyond the dyke in the soft light, arrested my attention and pulled the camera around. And now, looking at the image, I am arrested again…by a beauty I can’t quite wrap in reason…a beauty that goes beyond the elements of composition, texture, detail…or the living vibrancy of the cranes…to become something more. The image is not perfect. The center crane was moving its head just a bit too fast for the shutter…perhaps just swallowing or raising its crest…or about to call…and is blurred, but somehow even that works.
Beauty, light, comes out from the generous eye to embrace the world, and the world responds with beauty. The light within and the light without are the same light…the light of creation…the light of love. Jesus, child of God, is the light of the world, and as we come into the season when we celebrate that light, we only need to open our eyes wide to both give and receive…beauty, light, love. In us and around us, children of God by faith, light…love…beauty. Like three cranes standing in a frosty field.
Happy Sunday!
Yellow Crowned Night Heron. Happy Sunday!
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Estero Llano Grande SP and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is one grumpy looking bird. In fact all Night Herons, perhaps because of their large heads and the way they suck their necks down between their shoulders, have the same look of gloom…if not outright doom. “It is not easy,” they seem to say, “being a Night Heron.” The fact that they invariably have a little tuft of feathers caught at the tip of their beaks from preening does not help any. They are, of course, much more active, as the name implies, at night, when they hunt. I will admit I have never seen one at night. They might be a very different bird. When I see them they are resting…off duty, so to speak…and their general funk might be just my interpretation of their half-asleep state. I might look a little grumpy myself if some intruding human got close enough to my perch to wake me in the middle of the night…err…this is a difficult metaphor to keep straight but you see what I mean. Of course, the generous eye gets beyond first impressions to sees the beauty in the bird, and something of it’s nobility. In this wide-eyed specimen the eye alone is enough to redeem the bird. The eye compels us to take in the elegance of the gray and black (carefully preened) plumage, the golden crown, and the strength of the beak. Yes, like all God’s creatures, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron has its own beauty. The generous eye is always rewarded by the light that fills all creation.
Happy Sunday!