June 30th, 2020

Probably the one thing we have more than anything else here is birds.  You like birds?  We got birds. Lots and lots of lots of birds.

Birds of all different sizes and colours and songs.  They are everywhere.  At the beach, in the parks, at the hiking perserves, in your yard.  They are in parking lots, sides walks and sometimes in the middle of the dang road.  They twitter from tree tops, from over head electrical lines and telephone poles.  There is no escaping them.

I've never been what you might call a "bird person'.  I would never own a bird.  My mother did.  In my childhood my mother had a few canaries.  She loved listening to them sing.  Mother would play the piano and sing and the bird seemed to sing along.  She really loved her birds.

Don't get me wrong. I do not dislike birds.  Not at all.  I just do not want one in the house. I enjoy seeing them out the window and hearing them sing as I'm hiking or walking.   I watch them hop and waddle along the ground and the soar and glide through the air.  I see them paddle smoothly along across the water and sit as still and as silent as statues when it suits them. And apparently I like taking photos of them.  

I had no idea how many bird pictures I actually had until I started putting together the slideshow for this post.   I'm not absolutely certain what the appeal is with birds.  Is that the envy of their ability to fly?  I've heard so many people equate flight with freedom and who doesn't desire freedom?

Is it the variety of colour and size and the uniqueness of feathers as opposed to hair or fur that appeals?  As far as pets go, I prefer the sort with fur. And while I've had many dogs and cats in my life, and all of them were made to behave and walked on  leashes or kept inside, I would never do that to a bird.  They have wings, they were meant to fly.

There seems to be an endless variety of song and colour and size and shape.  And honestly I was shocked to find birds I recognized here in Florida.   Cardinals, crows and blue jays are birds I already knew!  I absolutely did not expect to find them here.  Florida is such a unique and different sort of place than anywhere else I'd ever lived, I fully expected all of the birds to be completely, well, foreign to me.

I read recently that there are over 500 birds native to Florida!  Holy Cats!  Originally I was planning to say that I had probably taken pictures of every kind of bird in Florida but clearly I was wrong. Not just wrong but wrongity wrong.  I've barely made a dent.

Guess it's back to work for me. Find more birds to take pictures of.  Not a problem.  If they aren't in my yard, then they are probably just down the street. And in the trees.  And the air.  And the water. And the beach. And....well they are everywhere!



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