For the Birds and Remembering

What's dumb and pretty and struts around with a feather on its nose? Only a mourning dove could be this lovely and this dopey. After her preening session, she carried that feather around with her for the next half hour - possibly longer but she flew away. For all I know she has it still.

Now this is a very smart bird. Her name is Lucy and she belongs to Frank. I've never seen her walk around with a feather on her nose. She does however walk around with a question in her voice. That question is "Wanna peanut?"

Now don't be fooled. Lucy isn't really offering a peanut. She's hoping upon hope that her repeated offers will convince one of us to get one for her. As you can tell by the victorious look in her eye, she's usually successful.

One afternoon, while sitting on my front deck, I noticed the goldfinch high atop a tree branch a couple of houses away. Frank's nifty 100-400 lens allowed me to take this shot from where I sat.

Much closer to me, but in Frank's back yard this time, this lovely little chickadee flew in to dine at the birdie café. Frank sets seed out every evening for them to enjoy and she's about to fly down to partake. I like the way her feathers are backlit by the sun.

One evening, at my local pond, this mallard struck a lovely pose, bowing its head as if in silent remembrance. I didn't realize it until I noticed the date upon scheduling this post, but I find this to be a fitting image with which to end this post on September 11 - ten years after.

This was a scheduled post.