© Karen McRae, 2014
beauty
Up with the Birds
Above: Purple Martins in flight
I stopped in to see the Purple Martins after a very early start to my day. If I were a Robin I might have got the first worm…
There is a lot of activity as they are busily collecting materials for their little nest-box homes. I spotted a pair of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) attempting to build a nest in one of the boxes. It seemed that the Martins were discouraging their presence but those Starlings are tenacious.
Above: Moving in ~ A Starling in flight, gathering nesting materials
Each type of bird has its own wonderful shifting form when in movement. I don’t think I could ever tire of observing and trying to capture these various forms. Anyway, I like how these images look a bit like drawings and this process is giving me some ideas (and reference material) for an art project.
© Karen McRae, 2014
Purple Martins
The gorgeous Purple Martins have returned to their summer home near the river. I saw a little bit of nest-building material being collected but mostly the swallows were zipping about catching insects when I made these photographs.
I love their songs and when you hear an entire community of them vocalizing together – especially once the young are hatched – it’s really quite a wonderful auditory experience. I’ll try to make a little recording at some point but there is a soundbite link below if you’re interested.
Click here to listen: Purple Martin Vocalizations (Soundclip from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) Imagine perhaps 100 birds making those sounds…
It’s been so beautiful outside it’s been hard to stay indoors!
[The image with three birds is a composite (layered) image showing various flight acrobatics.]
© Karen McRae, 2014
Incremental Spring
These little seed heads in my garden keep calling me back to look at them and I like observing their changes as they advance through the seasons and work their way out of the snow. Somehow they still hold a whisper of the faded colours of summer.
Spring is in no hurry, really, but under the trees there are finally circles of earth, damp and tarnished from the winter. These hopeful patches might hold a gentle robin or a few starlings jabbing hungrily at the ground, and today for the first time I am hearing the lovely lilt of a red-winged blackbird. We are grateful for any bits of spring that we find even if it is simply the incremental folding back of the snow or a few pussy willows breaking through their skins.
Below: The first pussy willows, a couple of weeks old now…
© Karen McRae, 2014
The Shape of Winter, Elsewhere
In this version of winter you cast off your boots and bulky layers and place your feet directly on the warm sand. Sand that you have gratefully borrowed for just a week. And you can’t stop looking at those marine blues of the sea and the graceful patterns the water makes. You want them etched in your mind forever. Damn, we live in a gorgeous world.
A counterpoint to the previous post, I guess. I’ve been away – feet in the sand, head in the clouds blue sky.
[Near and far views of the shifting landscape of Exuma, Bahamas. Sigh.]
© Karen McRae, 2014
Cold Enough
Cold enough for a rebirth of frost.
Shards assembling themselves
like a phoenix rising from damp ashes.
Cold enough for all-day sundogs
those almost rainbows – a compass around the sun.
Cold enough to feel alive
in the bright rays
in the cadence of the water
in the crisp beauty.
Cold enough to feel
until you go
numb.
°
© Karen McRae, 2014
Winter Garden
© Karen McRae, 2014
The First Few Days
The first few days of the year have been very cold. I am frequently lured out in this weather – it is one of my favourite times to make photographs – as the landscape shifts in and out of light and the breath from the river envelopes everything in its wintriness.
The sighting of a robin used to be a harbinger of spring but it is no longer uncommon to come across small flocks of overwintering robins. These robin photographs were made on one of the coldest days of the winter.
© Karen McRae, 2014
Cold Blue
It’s hard to resist the beauty of a really cold morning (-25c early this morning, according to our thermometre). At the edge of the rapids the turbulent water shifts the forming ice into different shapes and during the cold nights the surfaces grow carpets of feathery frost. The horizon is lost in a fog of water vapour.
A closeup of feather frost on an icy surface
As I was out making photographs I spotted many brave ducks that seem to be willing to tough it out and spend the winter in and around the open water. Pictured are a couple of shy goldeneye ducks above, and what I think is an American black duck below.
A little glimpse of the city which is not far away
[Similar ice compositions to a post I did last year here, but the cold is a month earlier!]
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 