Articles tagged with: Sparrow

10 Jan 2010 | 5 Comments | Birds »

Feeling rather lightheaded and footloose watching this snowy songbird
making his rounds in a cold, still world.

 
A snowy songbird making his rounds in a cold, still world

20 Oct 2009 | 7 Comments | Birds »

Traffic cop or air-traffic controller?
A helpful songbird knows the direction home.
Do you?

 
A songbird knows the direction home

6 Oct 2009 | 8 Comments | Birds »

An aerial show-off, a little bit freer than an earthbound observer.
 
An aerial show-off

4 Oct 2009 | 2 Comments | Birds »

Leapfrog isn’t just for amphibians, songbirds can play too. The whole backyard is an aerial playground.
 
Songbirds play leapfrog

27 Aug 2009 | 6 Comments | Birds »

A minor tiff overheard in a backyard:
 
“When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it.”
 
Well, I might have gotten the translation wrong. What’s your translation?
 
This image also appears in my book, Aerial Acrobats.

 

Take it and like it - A songbird tiff

14 Jul 2009 | 4 Comments | Birds »

Two songbirds leave a trace of wind as a record of their momentary mid-flight encounter.
Two songbirds in flight

25 Jun 2009 | 2 Comments | Birds »

A pair of songbirds leap and tumble in the late afternoon sunlight, chasing each other and showing off to a hidden observer.
A pair of songbirds leap and tumble in the late afternoon sunlight

9 Jun 2009 | 7 Comments | Birds »

       The rain was so hard last night I feared many flowers would be gone, but no, most survived.

       The small yellow blooms behind this twisting songbird will not last long, but for now they brighten the backyard.

       All night the sound had
       come back again,
       and again falls
       this quiet, persistent rain.
       – Robert Creeley

Twisting songbird

28 May 2009 | 4 Comments | Birds »

A late-afternoon songbird, lit up and glowing like a low-flying feathered ball of flame.
Low-flying feathered ball of flame

19 Apr 2009 | 6 Comments | Birds, Books | Art | Misc »

JG Ballard, one of the world’s great writers, and my personal favorite, has died aged 78 after a long illness.

       David Pringle put it well: I feel so bereft at the news of JGB’s death. It’s almost as if he had invented the modern world. How can things go on without his imagination to sustain them? Why hasn’t the world winked out of existence, without him to sardonically observe it?

       Michael Moorcock wrote: “He remains a seminally controversial writer hugely admired by the likes of Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Fay Weldon, Angela Carter, Iain Sinclair and most of the best science fiction writers. . . . Combining the creative insight and originality of a modern William Blake, Ballard is our greatest living visionary writer.”

       The rain-soaked songbird below seems to echo Ballard’s 1961 story, “Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer”, an early version of his first novel, “The Wind from Nowhere”.
Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer

8 Mar 2009 | 2 Comments | Birds »

The water stands higher than anytime I can remember in our backyard, birds are having a hard time feeding since yesterday.

Below, a soaked sparrow hovers in a light rain.
Sparrow