Today I’m delighted to begin another month-long blogging challenge. I’ve stated many times that I believe one of the things the world needs is more love letters. And so this month, in which we have the socially sanctioned love holiday known as Valentine’s Day, I’m going to be doing another one of my abecedariums. An A through Z compendium of some of the things I love. And while I hope you find things here that interest and/or delight you, what I most wish is that it inspires you to write your own love letters. The world, and each one of us in it, needs them. Let’s spread the love!
is for Avian
My Dear Beautiful Feathered Friends –
I’m so grateful all the gifts you bring to my life.
Being an urban dweller you are one of the most accessible fauna for me to delight in, and delight I do.
I love watching you flit from tree to tree. To wake up to your songs – especially very early on summer mornings. It’s like being pulled from slumber with a promise that the day awaits and is filled with joy, if only I “wake up, wake up you sleepyhead.” I love trying to identify your calls; to watch you as you court and build your nests and raise the next generations. The flash of a scarlet cardinal peeking out of green leaves; the yellow gold of a finch dining on the late summer sunflowers, the bossy blue jays; the shy colors of the shy mourning doves. You fill my heart.
While I love you all, I admit to some particular favorites. Certainly my beloved Crows and Ravens. Our connection is soul deep and I thank you for blessing me with your medicine. I do my best to carry it well. But I do especially love it when my corvoids visit and caw their greetings to me, and oh how I LOVE when you gift me with one of your precious feathers. Those are indeed sacred gifts.
And dear Robins, I love you too. Even more now I think since my father’s death, as his childhood nickname was Robin. I love it when you stop by, cocking your heads and looking me in the eye. It’s all very magical. And you know I keep an eye out for you each Spring and celebrate my first spotting of your return as an Important Holiday. Keeping track of your annual return was my first phenology project.
I love laughing at the near phobia I developed in early adolescence where I was terrified of the idea of any bird getting close enough to flap its wings near my face. I’m so glad that’s a thing of the past!
The first piece of 3-dimensional art I remember making was a clay bird, fashioned after a little wooden carved one my mother had. Which I painted with polka dots, of course! Now my house is filled with bird art, and it’s all a tribute to you my beautiful friends. I love you! SWAK Deborah
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In celebration of my feathered friends here’s a little collection of delights you might enjoy as well.
- Rosie Crow is one of my studio mascots. She was carved and painted by folk artist Toni McCorkle from reclaimed wood. I’m afraid the photo doesn’t do her justice as there is a glare, but I can’t manage a better picture because she hanging up so high. Which is where she likes to be with a bird’s eye view of things.
- And here’s a bit of wrapping paper that I treasure because of the gorgeous robin.
- If we’re celebrating birds we should have a song, no? How about The Weepies Little Bird? Love the song, and I love this animation. You’ll likely be able to guess why.
- I’m gobsmacked every single time I watch this video of a murmuration of starlings.
- And finally, my winter weary heart recently demanded a treat, and look what arrived. A fraktur folk art coloring book by artist Emily Fotis, with plenty of birds for me to color. Swoon.
What about you? Have a bird tale to share? A fave you want to give a shout out to? A resource or a treasure of the avian variety? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
I share your love of birds. I really like this article for how it describes a love of birds:
In Audubon Magazine, there was an article called “Ten Reasons to be Thankful for Birds,” this is #10:
They just are.
We have all been transported by simply watching a flying bird.
We have been lifted out of ourselves; we have felt our hearts race when the wings flash by.
Every one of us has seen what really matters–seen it in the blistering stoop of a peregrine, heard it in the richly harmonic dawn song of a thrush, caught its essence in the slow undulations of white pelicans against a blue sky.
And we’ve realized that for those moments, we were privileged to experience something beyond ourselves–that older, greater, glorious world that a wild bird inhabits, and which through its very existence embodies and makes vivid to us.
Oh yes – that’s the most perfect reason: “They just are.” I always enjoy seeing your bird photographs. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a hummer locally, so I always delight in viewing your many visitors.
Oh how I am loving the word and the concept of abecedarium. Yes please more love letters I agree. I am completing a February challenge to photograph something I love everyday. The month of love.
My favourite bird is the kookaburra it has an incredbile laugh that always brings a smile to my face.
Oh Karen – that sounds like a perfectly delicious challenge for February. I look forward to your postings. And you’ve totally convinced me I need to hear a kookaburra – I laugh just thinking about a laughing bird!
I live in the country and hear everything from hawks to little cheeps. One of the saddest things for me was when my mother grew old and could no longer hear the birds, even with a hearing aid. She would sit outside, insisting there were no birds any more no matter how much I assured her there were.
Rosie Crow rocks! Crows are such fun, so smart and social. And they’re huge!
Can’t wait to see what you love on ‘B’ day 🙂
Oh how fun you have “access” to country birds. When I visit my brother who has a home in the country I feel like I’m visiting a foreign land. He happens to live on a river that’s a migratory path so the birdwatching is amazing.
I love that murmuration of starlings video. It gave me great chills. I once saw something like that murmuration, though it was with swifts or swallows. It was at a school building in Portland, OR. The birds swarmed and swirled above the chimney stack, pouring themselves down the chimney to their nests. They were like liquid in the sky. I would love to be one of those starlings, or swifts or swallows. A pixel in that moving art. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Oh what a wonderful thing that must have been to witness Harmony!
Your love letter to the sweet birds is so inspiring. Me too – I’m a big fan of our avian friends.
Thanks Marcie.
Oh I do love birds! I think this was a beautiful ode to our fine feathered friends… In the spring we get oodles of humming birds… they are just such fascinating little things. One of these days I’m going to capture a good photo of one… 😀
Hugs my dear blogging sister,
Beth P
Oh Beth – I can’t remember the last time I saw a hummingbird in my neighborhood. They are such amazing creatures. I look forward to when you capture that good photo – I most definitely want to see it.