How sparse does a tree have to get before it ceases to be a tree and becomes a branch?
https://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2016/11/06/sunday-trees-5th-year/
Bare Minimum: Sunday Trees, Nov 6,2016
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Category Archives: Birds
Snowy Egret: A Vision of Maternity
(Please click on the photos to enlarge)
It would be hard to choose which sense is most stimulated by Mexico. I’ve written a few times about the sounds of Mexico as well as her flavors, but for me it is the visions of Mexico that top my sensory list of thrills. Time and time again, it has been color that has attracted the lens of my camera, but last week I exited Cafetto Saga and happened to look up at the monstrous “Egret tree” where egrets perch for the night and I was thrilled to have this opportunity to photograph white––not only the snowy perfection of egrets, but to also find that I was in a perfect location to photograph this mother and her chicks. The somewhat goofy appearance of the chicks offsets the elegance of the adults. I especially love the one of the chick stretched out to caress its mother’s beak. In fifteen years, I have never lost my excitement in viewing these graceful, gorgeous birds.
Bird’s Eye View
Bird’s Eye View
You crane your necks and stand and gawk
as you stroll past on your morning walk.
What do you look at, what do you see
as you strain to get a look at me?
Do you fear my beak and dread my claws?
Have you ever wondered as you pause,
what I might do without these bars
that stripe my view of sun, moon, stars?
Might I fly at you and score
an easy target before I soar
over this cage, rooftops and trees––
once more a part of a gusting breeze?
I am a prisoner, yet dreams go far
beyond each lock and screen and bar.
The wildness that you think you see
cannot be purchased for a fee.
If you cast a curious eye
but do not see me soar and fly,
You view the least that I can be,
but not my spirit. My spirit’s free.
Night Heron: Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge, Day 5:
Night heron in the mangroves, La Manzanilla Laguna, Jalisco, Mexico, February, 2016 Judy Dykstra-Brown Photo
I was invited by Cee from ceenphotography.com to participate in a challenge called Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge. (Check out Cee’s wonderful nature photos by clicking on the link above.
As part of this challenge, I am to post one nature photograph a day for one week and to ask one other person to join the seven-day challenge each day I post. Today I ask you to check out the photography in Our Rumbling Ocean as I’m nominating him to take part in the Seven Day Nature Challenge as well. I hope you will check out his link just above. You won’t be disappointed.
Seven Day Nature Challenge, Day 1
I caught this caracara bird at his early morning breakfast on the beach at La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico.
I’ve been invited by Cee from ceenphotography.com to participate in a challenge called Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge, and since I’ve been doing everything Cee told me to do for the past few years, of course I’m complying. Aside from being obedient, I also happen to have about 35,000 nature photos I’m eager to share, so this decision was not a hard one to make. (Check out Cee’s third photo of the nature challenge HERE.)
To take part in the challenge I’m supposed to post one photo per day for seven days, of anything from the natural world. And every day I should nominate a new member. Today I would like to nominate Bob Mielke from the pacificnorthwesttraveler blog. He is an excellent wildlife photographer who is especially adept at photographing animals. Check out his blog and hopefully you’ll see his first of seven entries for this challenge.
Three Lunes / Three Loons
Colored pencil drawing by Betty Petersen, photo by Judy
Yes, it’s April Fool’s Day, but it is also the first day of NaPoWriMo, where participants are asked to write a poem a day. This is the fourth year I’ve participated. Today’s prompt is to write a lune, a three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. In addition, most days I’ll also be following the WordPress one-word prompt, which today is the word “colorful.”
Three Lunes
I search for yellow,
whereas blue
comes looking for me!
Life paints a black frame
around white
to draw our eyes there.
That fuchsia flower
in the pond
floats on life and death.
Three Loons
The crying of loons
in chill air
turns the water blue.
Palm Tree Blossoms: Flower of the Day Mar 22, 2016
This little woodpecker wakes me up most mornings, pecking away 80 feet or more up one of my palm trees. This morning it brought a gift by bringing my attention to these beautiful palm blossoms that I usually only notice floating in my pool.
http://ceenphotography.com/2016/03/21/flower-of-the-day-march-22-2016-daffodil/
Pacific Blue
Strange how many times the Pacific is not Pacific blue! In these photos, somewhere in the water is the color of blue that this challenge calls “Pacific Blue.” The phrase has an added meaning to me, however, because I go home in six days and this time I am really not ready to go back. Here are some of the reasons why.
(Click on first photo to enlarge, then click on arrows to view gallery. When you are ready to return to this page, hit the X in the upper left side of the page.)
http://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/03/09/color-your-world-pacific-blue/
“No Soggy Doggies” and other Found Beach Stories
My rental house at the beach is no place to socialize three dogs raised behind high walls and accustomed only to their own company. At home on Lake Chapala, their relationships with other dogs consist completely of sitting on the roof and barking at every dog who dares walk by my house. I miss them, but they are well-cared for by Maggie, who is housesitting. The found art piece dedicated to them as well as a few others recently completed are shown below. All of these sculptures were assembled by me over the past two months from assorted plants, shells, bones, wood and other objects found on the beach during my morning walks.
(Click on first photo to enlarge. Then click on each arrow to view other enlarged photos. After viewing all photos, click on X at top left of screen to return to this page. A link to other found art wall sculptures recently completely is given at the bottom of this page.)
Dressed-up Detritus Bird
Vaquero (sold)
Parrot
I Miss My Dogs.
I Miss My Dogs (detail) This single flip flop found on the beach made me think of Morrie. In truth, he’s only eaten one of mine, but they were my favorite pair of Crocs.
I Miss My Dogs (detail). Any one of my three dogs, left at home with a housesitter, would have made quick work of this bone washed ashore with the tide.
Go HERE to view recently made found art sculptures shown in an earlier post.
I responded to today’s one word prompt, “Object” as a noun. Here is the link for the prompt, in case you want to see how others responded: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/object/
Travel Theme: Flutter
Flutter
One morning I woke up and came out onto my porch to view this spectacle of the birds waiting to get the leftovers from the fishermen as they cleared their gill nets of small fish used for bait. They waited patiently until the men tossed the excess fish onto the sand and departed. Then this flutter and dance ensued.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
