B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, bird, B-bird is the word! The members of this bird quartet are drenched and as the Bushtit on the left shakes off her feathers, the other members pause for a moment. Their melodic peeping chatter always announces their presence and their excitement over their bath. Although they’re not exactly surfing here, I think the Surfin’ Bird song fits. I know, I’m dating myself. Papa ooma mow mow!
The female Black-chinned Hummingbird has visited my garden regularly since I first recognized her a couple of days ago. She was a bit wary as she perched in front of me on one of the drip hoses that waters the hanging basket filled with cigar plants nearby that all the hummers seem to love. But she wasn’t wary of me, as I was mostly hidden in my patio door blind. She was probably expecting to get dive-bombed by the Anna’s Hummingbirds who make it their business to fend off other hummers in “their” garden.
Anna’s Hummingbirds dominate my garden but the occasional Black-chinned Hummingbird ventures in. I didn’t realize it was a Black-chinned that I’d just photographed until I downloaded the images. I believe it is a juvenile female based on the buff colored feathers under its wings. This image doesn’t show the beak but other images clearly show the longer, decurved beak that differentiates the Black-chinned from the Anna’s. Now I’ll be on the lookout for more Black-chinned hummers and hope to see a male. And, speaking of male hummers, for the first time this year, I watched a mature adult male Anna’s at the feeder, his brilliant gorget glowing the sun. Later, I photographed him bathing in the fountain but there was not a speck of color on his gorget in those images.
Happy Fourth of July! I love to photograph Bald Eagles, our nation’s symbol of strength and freedom for 240 years. The Bald Eagle is an apt choice but it didn’t just happen. The Continental Congress tasked Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams with designing an official seal for the United States shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed. However, they failed to get Congressional approval for their design and two subsequent committees were unsuccessful as well. In 1782, and as yet with no approved official seal, the work of all three committees was given to Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, to finish the job. He took the best parts of each of the designs and substituted the Bald Eagle for another type of eagle the third committee had suggested. He created what we know as the Great Seal. Watching Bald Eagles soar effortlessly through the skies over Kachemak Bay in Homer, Alaska and seeing them dive to the water’s surface to grab a fish and soar up again, it is clear that using the Bald Eagle as our nation’s emblem was the perfect choice. To quote John F. Kennedy, “The Founding Fathers made an appropriate choice when they selected the bald eagle as the emblem of the nation. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America.” Only it wasn’t really the Founding Fathers who selected the Bald Eagle. Interesting that it came down to one man few have ever heard of to make it happen. What is it they say about accomplishing anything with a committee?
How serendipitous that a couple of days before the Fourth of July, an orange dragonfly, sometimes called a Firecracker Skimmer, showed up in my backyard. My Z9 and Z800mmPF were waiting in the patio doorway, this time with the Z 2X Teleconverter attached.
The Kodiak Brown Bears we photographed on Kodiak Island in May reminded me of three things: grazing cattle, lazy dogs, and big Teddy Bears. This shot especially, makes me think of my older brother’s Teddy Bear, circa 1941, a moth-eaten Steiff mohair bear that I played with occasionally after he outgrew it. I mentioned this incident a year ago when I posted a photograph of a Kodiak Brown I called Steiff on Steroids. The last time I played with my brother’s bear, my friend and I were flinging it to each other from our positions at the top and bottom of the staircase. This upset my mother who put an immediate stop to the activity. I think one of the legs came off while we played catch so I guess it’s no wonder she was upset at us for abusing one of her first born’s treasures. She put that bear someplace I didn’t have access to and I never played with it again. The Teddy Bear was created by someone who made children’s stuffed toys as a way to honor President Teddy Roosevelt after he refused to shoot a bear that was tied to a tree, saying it was unsportsmanlike. But the Kodiak Browns we saw and photographed (our guides referred to them as “river bears”) appeared so gentle and serene. They looked so cuddly, like this bear, I could see how they became such iconic playthings for children. However, it never crossed my mind that I might try to toss one down a stairwell by its leg.