prothonotary warblers; top, da baby; bottom, da baby daddy
for reasons unknown, this dam thing is stuck on "centered" rather than "left margin" and i cannot get it to work right.................sigh..................sorry................hope you'll bear with me for this post.....
everywhere i go, all the friends i meet up with are all sick about the oil catastrophe.....me too.....it's like having a loved one in intensive care.........it's a day-by-day thing; and in this case, each day is getting worse. thus far, there have been no "good days" to hang on to. personally, i try to remember to just pray whenever the fear pangs in my gut gets too intense......pray for all those out there trying to make it right; pray for all those who live and work down there, and pray for the innocent ones who have no concept of what's going on with their world.......................
as always, my obsession/fascination with Nature has been a godsend.....and if it ain't healing, it's definitely soothing..........because we live in a bottomland hardwood setting within close proximity to permanent water (bayou vermilion), we've been fortunate enough to host nesting prothonotary warblers over the past 5-10 years........after i took a cue from a friend, and constructed recycled plastic water bottle "nest boxes" for them, attached predator guards, and stuck them on poles in the soft bottom of the coulee that lines the east side of our yard........as soon as i put those up, they immediately began nesting in them.
for being so.....uh.....wild & all, prothonotary warblers seem to tolerate proximity to human habitation just fine..........as with other species such as carolina wren, carolina chickadee, house finch, etc., i wonder just how long ago they took that step, y'know? it's interesting how some animals can put up with us, whereas others couldn't live anywhere near us....................................
in any case, we've sure enjoyed the prothonotaries..........so colorful......so exuberantly loud (the males, of course)...........backyard blessings................................like most u.s./canadian warblers, prothonotaries migrate back & forth between the tropics and temperate north america..........when the males arrive at our place each april, they immediately reassess their respective territories and nest bottles, and wasting no time, they launch into incessant song: a loud, ringing, penetrating, "sweet sweet sweet sweet SWEET!" all the livelong day..................hormone-ridden, they attack their reflected images cast from our windows, at first mistaking them for rivals; then, once they gain a sort of understanding, admiring themselves........so loud do they bang against the windows that they wake us up (right, always at about daybreak.....sigh again.....).
as of this week, a new fledgling (see "da baby" above) has taken to the window thing, flying from window to window, room to room, pecking and hollering.........it's driving the (indoor) cats nuts......us too. nevertheless, we're grateful.....and yes, are blessed with an abiding feeling of goodness.....maybe righteousness..........the good kind of righteousness that comes not from the self, but from the Other.
by these sorts of up-close-&-personal interactions with Nature, we are comforted....assured....that life will indeed go on here on this planet...........beautiful, inspiring life..................................we humans may or may not continue........that, unfortunately, is strictly up to us and our inventions..........but life will abide.....all will be right with this world..........................eventually...............................we humans just need to evolve (or possibly, devolve....that could be what 2012 is all about, ya'll....) into a less toxic, less brutal (for other creatures) way to live....................we used to be cool about it; but now we've grown too smart..............................too clever.........................to coniving...................................
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