Another Sunday at Belfair

It’s easy to see how beautiful a bird is when you see it for the very first time. It’s much harder to remember how beautiful common birds are. As a photographer, I point my camera at any bird I see —it’s automatic. I don’t always push the shutter button, though. Even though it’s easy to delete digital pictures, too often I find myself saying, “Just a robin, crow, etc.”

However, on Sunday’s trip to Belfair I was greeted by this Spotted Towhee

Spotted Towhee

as we entered the refuge and was struck by its bright colors.

Song sparrows are even commoner than Towhees, and it’s nearly impossible to ignore their singing. Their sound is as distinctive as the Red-Winged Blackbird and much more common this time of year.

Song Sparrow

Common or not, it’s hard to deny it’s a beautiful song.

I’m even more apt to overlook Robins, but it was impossible to ignore this one when he landed at eye level a few feet in front of us with some of the first berries of the year in his beak.

Robin with Berry

I suppose if Emily Dickinson could write so many poems about robins

The Robin is the One
That interrupt the Morn
With hurried — few — express Reports
When March is scarcely on –

The Robin is the One
That overflow the Noon
With her cherubic quantity –
An April but begun –

The Robin is the One
That speechless from her Nest
Submit that Home — and Certainty
And Sanctity, are best

I may be excused for including yet another shot in my blog.

2 thoughts on “Another Sunday at Belfair”

  1. Excused? Nay, lauded, for lovely photos such as these. A robin is a worthy subject, no matter how many times you’ve shot a photo of one.

  2. Wonderful post, loren! Your photography and Emily Dickinson’s poetry speak to me. Thanks so much for just what I needed to see and read today.

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