Nature and Small Observations

Turkey vultures are not pretty creatures to look at up close and personal, but I think they are seriously cool birds.

Today I was walking back from the other office and a turkey vulture soared overhead, perhaps sixty or seventy feet above ground. A beautiful, graceful sweep of wings and then a long glide in a slow serpentine line. Just wonderful to watch. I tried to find a video of one soaring so I could post it here, but the vulture is far more graceful than the camera work that I found so I settled for a picture.

As I was watching the vulture I saw a redtail hawk sweeping across the road with a mouse in its beak. It landed in an oak tree in an open field where, I guess, it was going to enjoy its lunch.

A wonderful day for bird watching, and I am not even a bird watching fan because, around here, it seems that most of what we have are crows.

Now crows have their points but they're not pretty or graceful. They're big and rather clumsy (have you ever watched a crow land?). They're loud-mouthed and a bit boorish. If they're annoyed, they make a big fuss. They gather in gangs called 'murders' and make a bunch of noise about it. Boorish behavior in my opinion.

Back to the vultures. Sometimes I see them in the early morning when I'm driving to work. If it's cold they'll perch on the top of telephone poles or on fence posts and hang out in vulture-like fashion. It's something I always find interesting to see. And I hesitated there. Is it beautiful? No, not really. After all they're just doing this:

Catchin' some rays because, after all, this is California.

The other day I saw a pretty robin checking out the olives that have fallen off the tree we have outside our back door. He saw me through the window and took off. Most of the robins we see around here are dull in color, a burnished, faded orange, like this guy:

 instead of the bright orange I usually think of when I think 'robin'. This guy had a beautiful color, darker brown on top and a vibrant orange underneath, like this:

Perhaps he's a juvenile? Maybe it was the angle of the sun and quality of the light? I don't know, but he sure was pretty.

Even though I don't get out in the country, much, I am lucky to have the chance to go outside and walk around and see these guys doing their thing. In fact, thinking of that, I think I'm going to take another walk.

See ya!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

People Are (Sometimes) Pretty Cool

Ya know, for all the bad raps put upon the collective heads of homo sapiens, people are actually kind of cool.

Yes, sometimes we’re stupid. We do things intending to be good and, more often than not it seems, end up screwing things up, usually catastrophically. But at least we try.

I mean take the honeybee. The European variety just wasn’t good enough. They didn't produce as much honey as people wanted so, back in the 1950’s, some brain trust decided to see what would happen to their productivity if they combined the mild-mannered Euro-bee with a cousin from Africa.  It worked. They mated and procreated and… disaster. The mild-manners of the polite Euro-bee were overtaken by the vicious sociopathic personality of the African variety. Now the Americas have a hybrid widely known as ‘killer bees’ because once they start to attack, they don’t stop. It’s like a mass suicide mission.

Then there’s the water hyacinth, a pretty water plant native to the Amazon River basin. In 1884, at the World’s Fair, they were given away as gifts. Then they became a problem, clogging rivers, stagnating water, killing fish. In 1910 a bill was introduced to Congress suggesting the United States import hippos to eat them. It didn’t pass (good thing because what we do with the hippos once they ate all the plants?).

We’re accused of killing the planet. To many, that’s not a matter for dispute. It’s a done deal. Everything, all of it, is the fault of people.

Personally, observing objectively and without emotion, I do think there are bad things that we do. In the end though, once the planet shakes us off through extinction (which will happen no matter how much we hope it doesn't), our impact in the overall scheme of things will be the equivalent of a single gnat’s fart.

The planet was around long before the first homo became erectus and will be around long after the last of us dies out.

It’s just that most people are: a) afraid of dying (as if they can do anything about it when push comes to shove); b) are passionate about telling everyone else how to live their lives (because those people have too damned much time on their hands).

For the first, get over the fear of dying. It’s going to happen. It’s, like, totally inevitable no matter what you do. If there were a secret to eternal life, it would have hit Facebook by now - sold in bottles and all.

Second, stop bossing everyone else around. If you have your panties hitched about ‘global warming’ and ‘carbon footprints’ you can always reduce yours to right next to zero. Stop breathing and things will take care of themselves. Just don’t expect me to devolve back to the Stone Age because you say it’s the right to do.

On the other hand, one of the coolest things about people is the good things they do for other species.

What other creature on this planet, no matter how benign in temperament, does things like consciously plan for the housing of other critters? Sure, some critters use things other critters have left lying around. Like crustaceans borrowing shells from others, after they’ve been abandoned. Swallows and varieties of wasps and hornets use buildings as support structures for their nests. People, though, are the one species that uses it’s intelligence to plan and execute living spaces for other creatures. Like these:

The first sits atop a post behind the building in which I work. It's old and weathered, but someone, at some point, made the point, took the time to buy the wood, cut it, put it together, paint it and mount it. Someone else who lives just uphill and across from the the guy with the musical fence, made the rest of these. There's another cluster on a different road on my way home at night.

Now, after seeing and appreciating these - the workmanship, whimsy and time involved - I think people can be pretty darned cool. Not perfect. Not by a long shot, but we have our moments of ultimate coolth, too.

Have a lovely day!

Best~

Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories