Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus,
Hairy woodpecker at a suet feeder who could probably do with a napkin.
The photo was taken at Sullys Hill National Wildlife Preserve, North Dakota.
Image: justawriter.
This is another image sent to cheer me up and to brighten your day, too!
I am receiving so many gorgeous images from you, dear readers, that I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the images and the creatures and places in those images. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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More like this
"Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
From Earth to the Universe was a brilliant outreach project for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, displaying online, and in real life, some of the best astronomical images around.
A few years ago I needed to image some ants for a short taxonomic paper. Lacking a decent specimen imaging system (like Entovision), I decided to snap the photos at
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -Mark Twain
Grrl/Hedwig,
It is birds and Beethoven that keep me keepin' on. I have been dysthymic or depressed for my entire long life, but it's the wonders of the natural world, especially as embodied in Aves, that keep me here. It's Beethoven that makes it possible to endure the facts, the reality, no matter how grim
Where I live and where I work offer opportunities to refresh my love and wonder, for I may see eagles, osprey, Cooper's hawks, several other raptors, all manner of waders, loggerheaded shrikes, warblers, and many native or wintering passerine. Then there are the dolphins, the occasional bull shark, rays. . . No matter how down I am, the sight of my three piscateers(green heron, snowy and great egrets) all balancing on the painters of moored small research craft in anticipation of the bounty of the incoming tide makes me grin from ear to ear.
It is love and wonder that will be your life preserver. Tell your care-givers you MUST have that connection to the wild, you need to see ducks and catbirds and herons and Pale Male and his family to cement your connection to the world that matters. You must go to Central Park, to Jamaica Bay, even just be able to see the rock dove flocking maneuvers that are so exquisitely precise.
"Hope is the thing with feathers. . ." is the truest thing any poet ever wrote. Show that poem to your captors/caregivers. One or two may understand a little.
I have two parrots. They are in my will, and I've been chasing rescues and refuges against the time I can no longer care for them or I die. Thus, I know the fear you feel for their welfare. Someone in this blog community will know someone in the area who can give them haven.
My heart goes to you.
Hypatia