Month: December 2005

Downy Woodpecker

Preoccupied with getting a good photo of the Pileated Woodpecker at Nisqually last Friday, I kept hearing a funny tapping sound behind me. Initially, I dismissed the sound as an echo, but soon realized it was the wrong pitch for an echo.

Distracted, I didn’t see these two until after I’d gotten a number of good shots of the Pileated Woodpecker. Once I decided to hunt down the source of the noise, it didn’t take long to locate this pair, though it took almost as long to get a clear picture of them as it did to get one of the woodpecker, which probably explains how I can spend four hours covering three miles of trail.

These Downy Woodpeckers kept dashing about in the pecker brush, making it nearly impossible to get them in focus as there were always branches between us, as you can probably tell from the blurry spots in the pictures. Here’s the female:

And here’s the male, as identified by the red topknot:

I wondered if these two followed me because there was a hawk hovering nearby, a hawk that flew away every time I approached. For whatever reason, they accompanied me for nearly a half a mile on my walk back, a most welcome diversion.

It’s far too easy to overlook small species like this and focus just on the larger birds. For many photographers, even Pileated Woodpeckers would probably seem too small to bother with. I like to think I’m not one of those people.

Happy Holidays

Lest friends fear I’ve lost my way and sacrificed the true Christmas spirit to some vague sympathy for the poor, you need not worry as I manage to spend like a true capitalist when it comes to Christmas decorations despite largely giving up gifts, per se.

We’ve purchased so many Christmas tree ornaments in the last few years that I had to leave half of them, mostly those acquired in a previous marriage, in the box this year. We’ve resolved not to buy any more ornaments for the tree, a resolve we’ll probably keep until next November when the next edition of Hallmark ornaments arrives.

My favorite acquisition of the year, though not the most expensive thanks to the many Christian laborers in China, is:

Yes, I know it’s actually St. Francis not St Nicholas who fed the birds, but we taoists have to make do though I’ll admit I’m a little worried how often I tend to transform my heroes into reflections of myself and my own interests.

On a slightly different note, I am cheered by the Pope’s recent warning that crass materialism threatens the true meaning of Christmas, but worried that Christian Fundamentalist leaders seem more concerned that heathens are taking Christ out of Xmas than that people may not have been showing the true Christmas spirit at recent Walmart Black Friday riots. I can only assume this reluctance to condemn such crass materialism is somehow linked to their political ties with big-business Republicans, who depend on that materialism to maximize profits.

A Sunny Winter Day

When I left home this morning it was a clear and crisp, one of the first in several weeks, and I figured it would be the perfect weather to get some pictures at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

When I got there I found the conditions less than ideal, though. It was cold, cold enough that the shallow ponds were frozen soild and the ducks and geese were slip-sliding away.

The area was covered in dense, cold fog. The sun looked more like the moon than the sun. Most of the birds, including birds of prey looked like they were too cold to waste any energy flying:

Luckily, a few hours later the sun finally broke through the fog and the pace picked up considerably. I got my best shot ever of a Pileated Woodpecker:

and thanks to the helpful volunteers in the visitors center I also got by far the best picture I’ve ever gotten of an American Bittern:

Despite a rocky start, it was the kind of day I needed to get me back in a Christmas mood.

So You Made a Little Money

Last night coming out of Tai Chi class, a lady asked if she could walk to the parking lot with someone. Since Leslie and I had parked in the same lot, we gladly accompanied her.

Originally,we were going to take the shortest route, through the alley and around the corner, less than a fourth of a block. Just as we started down the alley, though, I spotted a man in the shadows who appeared to emerge from a pile of garbage sacks.

I suggested we go back and go the long way rather than through the dark alley, discretion increasingly seeming the better choice as I get older and wiser, not to mention weaker.

Strangely, I felt a little ashamed about turning around and avoiding the man. I made an instant judgment about him based on very little. It seemed obvious he was spending the night sleeping on, and under, garbage sacks on the coldest night of the year. How could you help but feel sympathy for his situation? I’m not even sure if I would have blamed him if he had robbed someone to get money to spend the night inside, though I had no desire to be his victim.

Increasingly this Christmas I find myself listening to Tracy Chapman’s songs, particularly,

So

So you made a little money
Off of somebody else’s sweat
So some people starve a little
While you get fat
While you get fat

So you grind and grind
And you push and shove
Claim that those most worthy
Get what they deserve
What they deserve

Can’t be true
Can’t be true
’cause I’ve seen too many hungry faces
I’ve seen too many with the likes of you
Can’t be true

For you everything has it’s price
You give nothing away for free
If silence were truly golden
I guess no one could sleep
No one could sleep

You have money at your fingertips
People at your beck and call
And you’re fool enough
To think for a price
You can have the whole wide world

For all our sakes
And all our lives
We must hope the words
That come from your lips
We must hope those words are lies

For all our sakes
All our lives
We must hope the dreams
Soulless visions that you have
Are never realized

You’ve got a big house
And you drive a fancy car
So what if your pockets are full
If you have an empty heart

You snap your fingers
And all the waters part
So what if the people bow down
If they show you no regard

Your left hand
Always watches your right
So what if you trust in God
If you can’t sleep at night

You think you’ve made it
You think you’ve got what everyone wants
So what if you’re a big fat man
With an empty little heart

Who has made a little money
Off of somebody else’s sweat
Watching people starve
While you got fat
While you got fat
You got fat
You got fat

as much as I do listening to more traditional songs by Bing Crosby or Gene Autry, wondering how much meaning Christmas still has for me.

On the good side, the incident reminded me I haven’t seen any Salvation Army bell ringers at Safeway this year. Perhaps they were banned like they were at Target. After all, we wouldn’t want people’s Christmas mood spoiled by being reminded of the poor, would we?

I’ll have to send a check off in the mail since it was my mother’s favorite charity, though personally I’ve always found their religious overtones less than appealing.