feathers flying

Yesterday showed me two very different and rather unflattering sides to birds (the avian variety. I'm sure that today-- Valentine's Day-- will show me the same for the other kind of birds).

Gosh I love loaded language.

On the pretty walk from the parking lot to my building, I saw two male robins by a big old live oak. As I neared them along the path past the tree, I saw them leap up from the ground, come together low in the air, and beat their wings against each other. Unable to sustain flight while using their wings as weapons, they'd fall almost to the earth before separating and repeating the attacks. I stared as I walked within three feet of them. It was quite violent, and they just kept at it-- leaping, attacking with a rustling sound like long skirts gathered up before a running escape, falling, breaking apart just in time.

Later in the day, Corey took me outside to show me a stripe of dew along a curving row of bushes, like a guardrail that follows one of the bark trails on campus. For some reason drops of water from the saturated air had gathered only at a particular height on the bare branches.

On our way back to our building, almost to the lake, we heard a sound right behind us like a full bucket of water being splashed out onto the pavement.

We both spun around to see a blue-grey blur of motion off to the left. It was a great blue heron landing at the lake's edge, about fifteen feet away from us. To the right, the source of the splash: a ten foot swath of soupy white bird poop. It was as though the bird had painted its own landing strip. I can't believe so much volume came from a creature that size. We were extremely lucky to not get hit.

After gazing in wonder at the crap, we watched the bird's graceful, mechanical movements as it slowly positioned its whole body over the water and then with a delicate snap grabbed tiny silver fish in its chopstick beak. We must have stood there for twenty minutes, enthralled. I can't imagine a more awe-inspiring blue heron experience.

I do so enjoy the dark side of beauty, or the beauty of the dark.