I have always loved birds and studying them
and observing them has been very interesting to me. I once had
a friend who had a magnificent red tail hawk, and I would often
go visit him and watch him work with the hawk. We would take the
hawk out to a rural area near where he lived and "fly"
him for exercise and it was a beautiful sight. The hawk always
returned to my friend when he would signal it with whistle and
throw the lure in big circles around his head. Recently I have
been photographing birds that visit our garden. What magnificence
as they fly and glide in and out of the garden. What fun! I shall
continue photographing them along with my flowers and I hope to
add new photos to this Bird page soon. ----BT March 26, 2006
Our Towhee in the garden
October 31, 2008
Photo by BT
Come with me,
Into my garden,
Where beauty rests
And nature glows.
----BT
Blue Jay
March 21, 2008
Photo by BT
A House Sparrow, sometimes called
an English Sparrow, on the top of the fence in the back garden.
June 10, 2007
Photo by BT
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel
Lense: Canon EF75-300mm F4-5.6 IS
"I once had a sparrow alight upon
my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden,
and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance
that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn."
~Henry David Thoreau
Authors note: I had been waiting near the
feeder with my camera early on in the day. This spectacular Anna's
Hummingbird came gliding in, first to the sage plants with their
purple blossoms, then over to the feeder. The bird hovered for
what seemed a long time, then fed and flitted away with all its
beauty-a wonderful encounter on this spring March day!!--BT, March 22, 2006
Gentle day's flower-
The hummingbird competes
With the stillness of the air.
----Chogyam Trungpa
Anna's Hummingbird coming to the
feeder
March 22, 2006
Photo by BT
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF75-300mm F4-5.6 IS
The Hummingbird
The sunlight speaks. And it's voice is a bird:
It glitters half-guessed half seen half-heard
Above the flower bed. Over the lawn ...
A flashing dip and it is gone.
And all it lends to the eye is this --
A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.
by Harry Kemp
Author's Note: The Mockingbird in the photo
below has claimed a corner of our backyard garden, and it is perfectly
fine with us!! He flits about day in and day out--atop the house,
atop the fence, foraging on the ground, in the grass and so on.
It is wonderful to have him here with us in the springtime. He
is indeed a very welcome guest!! We even call him "Our Mockie!"-----BT,
March 26, 2006
Our Mockingbird atop the fence surveying
his realm
March 26, 2006P
Photo by BT
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF75-300mm F4-5.6 IS
"To me, the garden is a
doorway to other worlds; one of them, of course, is the world
of birds. The garden is their dinner table, bursting with bugs
and worms and succulent berries."
----Anne Raver
The Mockingbird posing on the ground
March 26, 2006
"Poor indeed is the garden
in which birds find no homes."
----Abram L. Urban
A Black Phoebe
March 22, 2006
Photo by BT
"There was a child went forth
every day,
And the first object he look'd upon,
that object he became,
And that object became part of him
for the day or a certain part of the day,
Or for many years or streching eyeless
years,
The early lilacs became part of
the child,
And grass and white and red morning-glories
and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird..."
-Walt Whitman
A Hummingbird at the feeder
August 2005
Photo by BT
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lense: Canon EF75-300mm F4-5.6 IS
The hummers come on
Silver transparent wings,
Hovering and skimming
The flowers to the feeder.
Beauty in motion!
----BT
A White
Crowned Sparrow in the grass in the backyard garden
March 24, 2006
Photo by BT
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
"I once had a sparrow alight upon
my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden,
and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance
that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn."----
Henry David Thoreau
