Category Archives: Birds
You Quack Me Up
Is love all it’s quacked up to be? You betcha.
Back off, boys!
I’m a har-har-harlequin,
Funny little duck,
If you’re look-look-looking for
A girl you’re out of luck.
She’s a sweet-sweet lady duck,
And she is all my own,
Best little sweetheart
I have ever known.
No one comes between us,
She’s mine, mine, mine,
To woo, woo, woo her,
You’d better get in line.
Australian Wood Duck
Another photo from my friends’ holiday in Australia.
Is it a duck or a goose? It seems to have features of both and its Latin name has been adjusted somewhat (from chen to anser?) to cover both features. Not sure about the Latin names, but there is definitely something goosey about this wood “duck.”
Hi,
My friends!
See me here?
I’m a wood duck,
Why am I called that?
No, I’m not made of wood,
I nest in tree cavities
Away from many predators,
My flightless ducklings leap from the tree,
When I call from the ground, they jump to me.
The Lunch Menu
“What to do? What to do? Which ones should we go after, Dad?”
“That’s a tough one, Son. So many dinners. So little time….
I guess we watch for a cripple, or a loner, like always.”
Poised
Over
Fields of geese
Eagles search out
Opportunity,
Eyes open for cripples,
Some lone, wandering straggler,
Any kind of anomaly
Lacking the protection of the flock,
A victim to be whisked away for lunch.
Shovelers
Folks!
May I
Introduce
The shovelers.
Their bills are special.
Wide with comb-like strainers
They sweep the water’s surface
Back and forth, swishing and slurping,
Straining out plankton and crustaceans,
Cleaning the water as they eat their lunch.
“Whadda ya say, Missus? Wanna go for a swim?”
“Naaaaah. I’m good. Just catchin’ a few rays.”
**Photo by friend, Sonia.
Birdfeeders
Hawk!
Warnings
are shouted.
Bird seeds are served,
but not for me; still,
hunger motivates me.
Unsuspecting songbirds feed,
inadvertently becoming
my prey, providing me with fresh meat.
Yes! Bird feeders — the balance of nature.
*****
Thanks to Linda for her help with etherees, a poetry form I had not yet tried. Any future tips appreciated. Check it out here:
Lyrebird
This bird is named for its amazing tailfeathers which resemble a lyre, a U-shaped, harp-like instrument. Unfortunately, the video only shows glimpses of the tailfeathers – but the main feature of the clip is to show the mimicry the lyrebird is capable of. They have been heard mimicking other birds, as well as copying sounds like sirens, dogs barking, and even cameras clicking. What a variety!
The video was taken by my friends who visited Australia recently. Lyrebirds are rather shy so this was a lucky capture.
Please turn up the volume for the best results.
Free Lunch
Hungry?
Table is set
Who says there’s no free lunch?
Suet for me and seeds for you
Just right.
P.S. I just figured out why poets are encouraged to write cinquains. It’s to make sure they don’t ramble on too much.
Five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively.
Bath Time
The Missus says for my New Year’s resolution, I should have a bath.
All right! I’ll show her I’m a tough guy. Just because it’s freezing…. I’ll take it like a man.
Krrrrrrikey! What was I thinking?!
That’s enough of that. If she doesn’t like it, she can just smell me later.
Crispin’s Dining Room
While pruning one of our yew trees, I reached in towards the center, groping for the branch to cut, and felt a bird’s nest, obviously left there late last spring. Hesitantly, I checked for leftover unhatched eggs or dead chicks before I would throw the nest away.
The “eggs” I found in the nest were all cracked open, but they sure looked like hazelnut shells to me.
“Aha! Crispin the Squirrel has been here. I hope he only found the nest after the baby birds had flown.” I reasoned that the hazelnuts would not have been ripe until late fall, and the baby birds would have flown in the spring, so I didn’t think too badly of Crispin for making himself at home in this new dining room of his.
“Uh-ohhh … she found my stash.”
Another cinquain – five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
wordsfromanneli 