En silhouette.
Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) calling a friend. To produce his series of deep hoots this owl dipped his head and lowered his entire body. I can only guess the posture allows the bird to fill its voice box with sound and air to project and direct the call.
Please click photo for an enlarged view.
Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) at Whitewater Draw.
This is probably the most photographed owl in Arizona. Hundreds of people visit Whitewater Draw during the winter sandhill crane season, and this bird can be reliably found in the rafters of the work shed at the preserve. The owl seems completely inured to the people that gather under his perch for a better look.
The Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area is in Cochise County, near the town of McNeal, Arizona.
Typical pintail pose.
Northern pintail (Anas acuta) at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.
Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire.
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus / Pieter Bruegel the Elder / oil on canvas, ca. 1560 / in the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.
This image is adapted from a digital version in the public domain. Please click through for an enlarged view.
When Icarus was falling
Burning and blinded
He was born and buried along with his pride
For Michael,
Don’t measure your life out in coffee spoons.
– Jane
A paraphrase from Prufrock, inscribed on the endpaper of a graduation gift from my high school English teacher, Mrs. Jane Harvey. The book? A full-color reproduction of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.
The Resident G.B.H. on a tumbleweed platform. This is one of the most reliable birds I know.
At the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.
Yellow-headed blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.
Sandies. Sunset.
Sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.
Dithyramb 