Slow Birding

Wednesday morning I went back to Nisqually since I haven’t been there in awhile. They’re still working on the boardwalk, and I guess they will be until October or so before it’s completed. So birding is definitely limited and there really weren’t many opportunities for photographs. All I managed to get was this shot of a Savannah Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

and this Kestrel that was quite far off and still flew away once I pointed the telephoto lens at it.

Kestrel

Luckily, Waughop Lake was a little better. There was a considerable number of young Wood Ducks, like this juvenile male.

juvenile male Wood Duckl

Unfortunately, I had my lens set on automatic so I could get shots of the birds in the shaded brush beside the trail and missed what would have been the best shot of the month, when this Osprey suddenly swooped down literally right in front of me.

Osprey

Although this shot turned out okay, the best shots , when he was even closer, were too blurry to use. It was swooping away with his prey before I finally got another shot in focus.

Osprey Flying Away with Fish

I’ll have to admit I could get addicted to highs I felt as the Osprey slammed into the water right in front of me, photographs or no photographs.

Something New at Belfair

It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to Theler Wetlands and since I’m going to Colorado for a week or so Friday, I headed out Tuesday after the clouds finally burned off. There were large flocks of

juvenile Red-Wing Blackbird

juvenile Red-Wing Blackbirds, large numbers of

Barn Swallow

young Barn Swallows, and I even managed to get the best shot so far of my camera-shy Pacific-Slope Flycatcher,

Pacific_Slope Flycatcher

but my favorite shot of the day had to be this one of the first Common Yellowthroat

Common Yellowthroat

I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been visiting Theler.

Paradise Lost

It’s pretty common while watching hummingbirds to observe a confrontation between them as some members of the species are quite aggressive, so I was a little confused when I saw this encounter yesterday.

Despite my best attempts to take pictures of such confrontations, I’ve never managed to get my camera to focus on two different hummingbirds at the same time. This one from yesterday is about the best I’ve managed:

Two Hummingbirds Meet

Strangely enough, neither seemed particularly aggressive toward the other, though it’s rare this time of year to see a hummingbird tolerate another hummingbird anywhere near the crocosmia.

Instead of one driving the other off, they both flew to telephone lines above the flowers and sat there calmly for quite awhile.

probably Anna's Hummingbird

juvenile Rufous Hummingbird

Considering the size and color differences, I wondered if it was a parent and its offspring, which set off a quick search of the internet, despite some obvious differences in colors.

Instead of solving the question, my search raised more questions than answers. The more I read, though, the more I suspect that these were actually two different species, an Anna’s on the top and a Rufous on the bottom, probably a female Rufous, or possibly a juvenile.

I can definitely tell a male Rufous, at least in breeding colors, from a male Anna’s, but I’m beginning to think that I probably have been confusing the females and juveniles of the two species. If so, most of the hummingbirds I’ve seen in my yard are female Rufous, thought I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a picture of a male Rufous in breeding colors in the yard. I’ve only managed to do that out on the refuges I visit regularly.

I’d like to just go back to admiring hummingbirds for their beauty and their ability to defy gravity rather than worrying about identifying them. Unfortunately, I’ve found it impossible to return to that blissful state of ignorance that once blessed my life, though at moments I can still get lost in beauty.

Rufous Hummingbird

Elvis and the Nun

I usually try to choose representative, typical, poems when I discuss a poetry book, but, though I could identify some major themes, I find it nearly impossible to classify Madeline Defrees. Perhaps that’s why I liked her sequence of seven sonnets dedicated to Elvis Presley.

Somehow the idea of a “disenfranchised” nun born in 1919 dedicating a series of sonnets to Elvis, “The King,” appeals to me for ultimately every good poet must challenge our stereotypes.

A Crown of Sonnets for “The King”

I. THE UNDERTAKER’S DREAM

Around the Oklahoma copper casket,
the dream stars Army buddies playing taps,
heartbreak hotel the sum of all your trips
while thousands stand in line to buy a ticket.
Elvis, it’s hard to screw your swiveling hips
tight as a lightbulb into this final socket,
your body carried away in the gold lamé jacket
as something keeps breaking loose and the music stops.

When Charlie Hodge, with deft mascara brush,
tenderly changed to black your temples’ gray
the “Memphis Mafia” knew how to make
the most of loyalty amid the crush.
Stand back and let him breathe. Don’t go away!
These are the words I hear as I awake.

Looking back, of course, I find it hard to believe how much of an Elvis fan I was, waiting by the radio for the disk jockey to play “Heartbreak Hotel” or “Hound Dog” time after time, at least until we got a 45 record player and I could buy my first record: “Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog.” Who would have ever guessed that “Heartbreak Hotel” would foreshadow Elvis’ life? Then again, who would have thought that Elvis would trade in his leather jacket for a “gold lamé jacket?” Lame is right!

Ultimately, Defrees seems to capture the enigma of Elvis in the line “Stand back and let him breathe! Don’t go away.” He couldn’t live without the adulation of his fans, but he couldn’t cope with it, either.