Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Bird watching

The Bureau Chief can watch birds out his office windows without rising from his chair, which is lucky since, given his non-energetic ways, he otherwise wouldn’t do any bird watching at all. And we are not talking about sparrows on the lawn (there isn’t any lawn). We are talking about Red-tailed Hawks, flying in lazy circles on the thermals, looking for small mammals to eat and huge Ravens, doing aerobatics in pairs this time of year. Apparently it’s the start of mating season.

There are also exotic looking migratory birds during this time of short days. Our uphill neighbors have a fig tree which overhangs our fence a little. It’s a magnet for the traveling fliers. I’ve taken photos two years in a row now. Get out your bird books!

These two are from 2008:





These two are from this year:





The sky is gray and the figs are less plentiful this year but the birds are more colorful. I have decided that this is not a metaphor for anything.