Our week-ends are usually spent bird watching and taking beautiful images of anything that moves or flies in the awesome woods of Southern Indiana. On Saturday afternoon we took off into the woods in search of anything with wings We searched for awhile, and after about two hours, we finally gave up and headed back to our home town, we were very disappointed and felt like we had wasted our afternoon. As you probably already know, wonderful things happen in unexpected ways. We sometimes take the back road into our home town, we take that route so many times and the glorious things we see there are "out of sight"! My husband, George said, "Look honey at all those birds in the top of that tree, and sure enough, all those beautiful birds were swarming that gum tree! There was probably 100 birds just having a ball in the sunshine! I had never seen anything like it in all my years! Of course I'm just a young birder, so I'm expecting to see a lot more This birding life is wonderful, I fell in love with birding in the year 2001, and I love it! My husband George taught me everything I know about birding, but he still thinks I should read a book about the subject and I just laugh, because I don't have time to read about birding, I just want to find more beautiful birds! LOLOLOLOL Let's face it, like I'v already said, each new experience with a new bird just makes my day! These georgeous birds just hunted and hunted, in and out, catching one bug right after another! We snapped and snapped, I just couldn't get enough of watching them, perching and flying, catching and eating! They didn't seem to mind one bit that we were there with them, enjoying their life! Many times in the past two years, I've said, "I wish I were a bird"! Of course my husband reminds me about cats and all those birds of prey who would love to devour me for lunch, so I have to be happy just to be me! I felt like I was at a release of an emmy award winning movie from Hollywood! We sat there for it seemed like forever, but time meant nothing to us as we watched them play. Finally some nice man stopped beside our car and said, " have you guys already phoned for help, and then he saw the cameras and said, "Oh, sorry I see you're just taking pictures". We thanked him and he went on about his way and then we said, "There are still nice people left in the world", and we both agreed! Well, the sun sank deeper in the West and those beautiful birds just kept on catching bugs! We just kept on clicking for hours from every angle! Of course we had to park with the sun, when we lost the sun on one end of the world, we just drove up the road and turned around and got on the other side of the world! My arms got tired, honeys arms got tired and we forgot about time and space and everything! Finally, I had my camera stuck way up in the air, and I heard a very familiar voice say, "honey, it's the police," and I said, "Where"? George said, "pulling up behind us, and they are now getting out of their car," and I said, "you're kidding", and he said, "no, here they are now," and I turned and they were looking in the window"! I turned around and looked into the face of our one and only lady police woman! I had heard people talk about how tough she was at her job! At that moment I was so very proud of her because this is a very remote road. She had to have a lot of courage to stop and come and look in our window, since she did not know us from Adam! Oh, "hi, she said. I see you all are just bird watchers! I thought, boy is that an understatement, and then I said, "is it O.K. if we sat here a little while, and she said, "of course, you all have a good evening"! We said, "thank you", and she went on about her way! We sat there untill the sun sank deeper and deeper into the west . The sun had almost left our part of the world to travel on and bless somone else's day. George said, " are you about ready"? I said, " I guess I have to be, all the light has left us! We pulled on out and left them there in their beautiful world! And us, we're just waiting for the next bird watching adventure and I'm sure they will always keep us entertained! For each new day and each new adventure, we say, thank you, you beautiful creatures of the air for letting us be in your world for one magic moment! By: Mary Alice Bowles Freelance writer: Southern Indiana |
| CEDAR WAXWING (Bombycilla cedrorum) SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH GEORGE & MARY BOWLES ( BIRD WATCHERS) 9/18/04 |
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| The male is a very sleek-looking brown gray bird with a pointed crest on head. It has a litght yellow belly and looks like a bandit with a black mask. The tip of its tail is bright yellow and tips of its wings look as if they have been dipped in red wax! |
| The female is exactly like the male. The female and male both build the next and the female incubates for 10 to 12 days and children appear in 14 to 18 days. Their food is fruit and insects! |
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