


“Each day is an invitation to see the world in a new way.” – Marv & Nancy Hiles
“Each day is an invitation to see the world in a new way.” – Marv & Nancy Hiles
“I photograph birds because they are visual poetry to me. I see them as the truest embodiment of grace, hope and beauty.” – Melissa Groo – Wildlife photographer and Conservationist
“Once we know that the entire physical world around us, all of creation, is both the hiding place and the revelation place for God, this world becomes home, safe, enchanted, offering grace to any who look deeply.” – Richard Rohr
“My favorite bird changes depending on the family, the season, the rarity factor, whether I managed to locate the bird myself, whether we locked eyes in the field or not. But in general, unless I’m staring at gulls, or muttering obscenities under my breath while trying to distinguish a Baird’s from a White-rumped Sandpiper, my favorite bird is the one right in front of me.” – Julia Zarankin – Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder
“Sometimes, what I try to get people to do is to disconnect for a moment from the absolute need to list and name, and just see the bird. Just see that bird… in that moment, it’s a beautiful thing, no matter what its name is.” – Drew Lanham
“To understand, to get from some egg in a nest to where it is, to grace you with its presence, that it’s taken, for this bird, trials and tribulations and escaping all of these hazards. And so I try to think about people, as much as I can in that way – that each of us has had these struggles from the nest to where we have flown now.” – Ornithologist Drew Lanham, interviewed by Krista Tippett (On Being).
Today’s snow day provided a great opportunity to sit in my blind and photograph birds as they took turns visiting our feeder.
Northern Cardinals are always a welcome sight in the snow and you can clearly see where a Red-bellied woodpecker gets its name, as it appears to do a chin-up in the middle photo.
Dark-eyed Juncos are the original “snowbirds.” During these colder months they travel in small flocks from the evergreen forests, further north, to our backyards and feeders.
“Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is a much higher and truer courage.” – Wendell Phillips
“You can’t see the whole path ahead, but there is usually enough light to take the next step.” – Henri Nouwen