Not Narcissus

Not Narcissus
[Photo By KPA]

"they shall mount up with wings as eagles"

[Photo By: KPA]

Isaiah 40:31

they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.

Psalm 40: And He Hath Put a New Song in My Mouth

Robin Song
[Photo By: KPA]

Psalm 40

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

5 Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.

10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.

14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

Wisdom

Proverbs 4:7

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Swan Under the Leaves
Lake Ontario, Port Credit
[Photo By: KPA]

Swan Under the Leaves

Swan Under the Leaves
Lake Ontario, Port Credit
[Photo By: KPA]

The Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper
By Lake Ontario,
Port Credit
[Photo By: KPA]

My little bird looks like it might be floating on water. It barely stayed five minutes on the rock, and I was hoping it would move, maybe jump on from the lower ledge to the top. It looked around, and flew off, skimming the water.


John James Audubon (American, 1785–1851)
Spotted sandpiper...View on Bayou Sarah, Louisiana, pl.CCCX , 1827–1838
(Caption at bottom of illustration:
Spotted Sandpiper
Totanus Macularius
1 Adult Male, 2 Adult Female
View on Bayou Sarah, Louisiana)

The Spotted Sandpiper has a wonderfully extensive range, for I have met with it not only in most parts of the United States, but also on the shores of Labrador, where, on the 17th of June, 1833, I found it breeding. On the 29th of July, the young were fully fledged, and scampering over the rocks about us, amid the putrid and drying cod-fish. In that country it breeds later by three months than in Texas.

- Illustration and caption from John J. Audubon’s Birds of America.

Audubon's "In that country" of course refers to Canada, where he studied the birds in the province of Labrador.

He might have saved a long trip "north" by just coming across the New York border to southern Ontario. He'd find the bird mid-June in the more northern Newfoundland and Labrador, but further south, probably by late June, which is when I photographed this bird (June 26th).

It's a delicate and strange little bird, with its extra long pointed beak, and long spindly legs. And a screech/call that is high pitched, not quite shrill, and audible through the wind and waves.

Audubon describes its song:

While flying out in these wide circuits, agitated by superior feelings to those of hunger and necessity, we hear the shores re-echo the shrill and rapid whistle of 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, and usually closing the note with something like a warble, as they approach their companions on the strand. The cry then varies to 'peet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, beginning high and gradually declining into a somewhat plaintive tone.

- From John J. Audubon’s Birds of America

Video from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

I tried to find why this bird was called a sandpiper. Perhaps because it "pipes" through the sand as it looks for food (Insects, crustaceans, other invertebrates. Feeds on wide variety of insects, also earthworms, crabs, crayfish, small mollusks, small fish, sometimes bits of carrion - source Audubon's Guide to Birds of North America)?

The National Geographic has this explanation, more on the sandpiper's cry than its feeding methods:

When airborne [sandpipers] tend to be vocal animals. They sound off with a distinctive three-note, piping-like cry - often represented as “twee-wee-wee.”

Audubon describes the bird bobbing its tail as it sings. I didn't see this, but what I noticed was an endearing bend forward of its longish neck, perhaps as it contemplates flying off.

Below is a map of eastern Canada, showing where Audubon traveled to study the sandpiper.


Highlighted region: Newfoundland and Labrador

Three Swans

Three Swans: Lake Ontario, Port Credit
Photo By: KPA

Swan Grace

Swan Grace
Photo By: KPA

This beautiful swan, which has the full command of the shoreline, swims out further into the lake and back again. Its other companions were not visible (I have seen them in the nearby Port Credit Harbour Marina area), save for one, which swims farther out into the sea, and back again.

I was struck by the graceful bend of its neck.

Two Swans

Two Swans
Lake Ontario, Port Credit
[Photo By: KPA]

Mallard Ducks: Female Subtelty

[Photos By: KPA]

The most conspicuous of the ducks is the male mallard duck. Its iridescent head, glowing with gold tints, is truly beautiful. Its body, a fluffy down, inviting touch, is equally attractive.

But it is the subtly of the female that wins my points.

Here are a mallard duck couple. They didn't seem to mind my intrusion, as long as I didn't get more than two feet to close. Then they just simply quacked. And I obliged.

I had my weapon, my camera with its super-zoom lens, which can take tele-photo close-ups. And a close-up of the female's feathers was truly surprising.

There is a stroke of a blue-purple, in just one area, near the bottom of the abdomen, which brandishes and identifies this feminine counterpart. Nothing flashy, but present, all the same.

If only human females would learn this art of subtlety, and let that indomitable male shine, or let him let her shine.

But, I prefer the art of the mallard. A stroke of purple is all it takes.

Swan on the Lake (Ontario) 2

Lake Ontario
Port Credit
[Photo By: KPA]

Swan on the Lake (Ontario)

[Photo By: KPA]

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The Swan
By: Camille Saint-Saëns
Cellist Audun Sandvik and pianist Helge Kjekshus

Clean Water

Ezekiel 36:25-27

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Photo By: KPA
Lake Ontario Robin

Swan on the Lake (Ontario)

Swan on the Lake (Ontario)
Photo By: KPA

I took this yesterday during a drive into the lovely town of Port Credit, which is by Lake Ontario.

"It is Spring!" Sings the Robin

"It is Spring!" Sings the Robin
[Photo By: KPA]

The Jubilee Garden is filled with birds. But the robin has claimed a tree, and a particular branch, from which he sings his song of spring.

Psalm 150

Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord.

Red Bird

Red Bird
(Cardinal)
[Photo By: KPA]

"The time of the singing of birds is come"

"The time of the singing of birds is come"
Song of Solomon 2:12
[Photo By: KPA]

Let's Talk

Birds of the Air

Mourning Dove
Mississauga Jubilee Garden Entrance
Fall 2018
[Photo By: KPA]

Matthew 6: 26

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

The Envy of Poets

The Envy of Poets
[Photo By: KPA]

Not to be a bore with the details, but I had to find some kind of leafy cover from the sharp daylight so that my little bird didn't come out as a silhouette. Then I did some tweaking with my digital dark room (that is exactly what it is. Artists - photographers (and painters too, and Greek sculptors) have tweaked their images since time immemorial. But without those little birds for whom we wait patiently in their impatient flutter to fit into the frame - the frames we outline and find suitable for them to sit in, such things as digital keyboards would just be another gadget destined for the garbage truck.

---

The trick with photography is often waiting. There were many birds fluttering around these blossom trees, often reacting to a passerby, or some distant rumble (Wind? Sea? lion? I don't have their sensitivity.)

But they get used to me, my stillness - I could be a magical tree or something - and my long (I use a zoom lense) protrusion, and they hop around from branch to branch, impatient and never still for long.

"Free as a bird" isn't quite true. Yes these birds roam the sky as they apparently wish, but they have to find food. shelter, mates, nesting material, and protection from hot and cold temperatures, not to mention rain.

They are simply themselves. That is what we (and poets) envy.