Birds and Bees
Blog break again people! This time my laptop charger
decided to seize up. :(
Since I have less than a minute before it shuts down, here is my unfinished post.
-------------------
This post is in memory of the wasp and the butterfly that died on my front porch in the last week. I stood very long watching their last moments of agony, goading them to move even though I was afraid of impeding their passing. I am glad it is over, even though their struggle for life will remain with me forever.
---
The year I joined film school, the cicadas came out of the ground after 17 years. In clusters of hundreds they would charge into every door or window, sidewalk or shrub, creating disruptive chaos for the few hours that they were alive. The shrill discordant singing of the males, their bright red eyes, their glossy black body, their long fragile wings, were all a miracle perceptible only for a month before they vanished. Before they died the females laid five hundred eggs each, the lives of which I may never see, at least not for the next two decades.
The cicadas gave shape to a lot of creative expression that year. All the films submitted by students that semester had one distinct but unifying quality, which was their allegorical interpretation of the insect’s existence.
---
As I walked out of my office the other day, I saw a full wing of a rock pigeon on the sidewalk. It was a very saddening sight. The wing looked liked it was cut clean with a knife at the joint.
---
What I like most about sparrows and pigeons is that they are reminders of home. They are the very same birds I grew up with in India. How strange that they must exist so many continents away. The ones in Dupont are fatter from the abundance of leftover food from the restaurants.
---
There is one kind of pigeon I have come to like in the US. The white ones with a brown head. They look so unlike the typical grey rock pigeons. Something about them makes me smile.
---
This winter our patio served as a retreat for a lot of birds. The northern cardinals and american robins were omnipresent the whole of winter and spring. I don’t see as many American robins these days and am beginning to miss their charmingly sprightly personalities, their heads held high, their quick hops, their beautiful song.
The male northern cardinals are imperial looking bright red things. They visited my apartment almost everyday throughout winter, although I saw fewer and fewer of them as the days went by. The female cardinals, with their elegant brown coat and bright orange beaks were so hard to find except on weekends when the curtain is open all day. In my opinion the females are unfairly held in low esteem because of their color.
We have been seeing warblers and chats fly past us quickly. They sit on our patio sometimes but only for a second, never long enough for me to observe them.
---
Lately we have had new visitors. The mourning doves, grey and brown come over every once in a while, seemingly oblivious to our presence. Despite their dull color, they are pleasantly delicate to look at and manage to grab your attention with their subtle grace if not anything else.
---
In winter, and more so in Fall we saw a lot of ring-billed gulls by the reflecting pool in the capitol. They are perhaps used to visitors, for they are impervious to tourists who come dead close to them. The gulls have a very stately appearance. Watching them circle overhead with their broad wings or glide smoothly in an effortless manner is pure pleasure. This is one of the few things I look forward to during the frigid days ahead.
---
The reflection pool at the Lincoln memorial and the Potomac river are home to a lot of dabbling ducks. The beautiful male mallards with their glossy green heads, brown bodies and black tails must give their dull brown female counterparts a complex if they don’t manage to attract them. The one thing I haven’t noticed of both mallards that I have seen in pictures is their bright blue wings as they take flight.
Some of my most memorable experiences with birds has been with mallards. Sitting in the Potomac with our bare legs in the water, Anand, Tapi and I observed the female mallards approach us from a distance to almost a foot away, staying put for a bit and then moving past us. The only dampener to the experience was having sewer rats clandestinely run past us, their cold sleazy bodies touching our feet.
---
American crows are jet black and shrewd looking, very unlike the grey-breasted Indian crows that have a gentle appearance. I haven’t been able to tell them apart from the ravens, except sometimes when they seem to look smaller and less shaggy. I am told the ravens are usually solitary, but I cant remember seeing large flocks of crows either. They seem to be in small groups of five or ten.
---
I have been seeing hawks and eagles soaring in the sky. But sometimes its hard to tell the difference despite acquiring some theoretical knowledge and seeing pictures. It may be that I haven’t studied them at all despite what I would have you believe.
---
Every once in a while I come across a black bird with a beautiful white tail. I have been wanting to know what that bird is. I hope I find out some day. My ignorance is only making me more and more obsessed with this bird. I look for it everywhere.
---
I am eager to learn the names of three bees that I saw this year. One im particular had enchanting features. It had a beautiful round glossy yellow body with black polka dots and a black head. I am also keen on learning the names of three butterflies that I found in the trail in virginia. I have taken a lot of pictures of flowers and am embarrassed to say that I don’t know the names of many. Such a shame!
---
The european starlings are still here. Their bewitching black coat with a peacock green shine is getting duller and the white spots all over the body are more apparent.They are still just as evasive, but even from a distance they wobbly walk is just as adorable.
---
Where did the new black squirrels and grey rabbits in the apartment building come from? The more I see them, the less I see the deer and the geese.
Since I have less than a minute before it shuts down, here is my unfinished post.
-------------------
This post is in memory of the wasp and the butterfly that died on my front porch in the last week. I stood very long watching their last moments of agony, goading them to move even though I was afraid of impeding their passing. I am glad it is over, even though their struggle for life will remain with me forever.
---
The year I joined film school, the cicadas came out of the ground after 17 years. In clusters of hundreds they would charge into every door or window, sidewalk or shrub, creating disruptive chaos for the few hours that they were alive. The shrill discordant singing of the males, their bright red eyes, their glossy black body, their long fragile wings, were all a miracle perceptible only for a month before they vanished. Before they died the females laid five hundred eggs each, the lives of which I may never see, at least not for the next two decades.
The cicadas gave shape to a lot of creative expression that year. All the films submitted by students that semester had one distinct but unifying quality, which was their allegorical interpretation of the insect’s existence.
---
As I walked out of my office the other day, I saw a full wing of a rock pigeon on the sidewalk. It was a very saddening sight. The wing looked liked it was cut clean with a knife at the joint.
---
What I like most about sparrows and pigeons is that they are reminders of home. They are the very same birds I grew up with in India. How strange that they must exist so many continents away. The ones in Dupont are fatter from the abundance of leftover food from the restaurants.
---
There is one kind of pigeon I have come to like in the US. The white ones with a brown head. They look so unlike the typical grey rock pigeons. Something about them makes me smile.
---
This winter our patio served as a retreat for a lot of birds. The northern cardinals and american robins were omnipresent the whole of winter and spring. I don’t see as many American robins these days and am beginning to miss their charmingly sprightly personalities, their heads held high, their quick hops, their beautiful song.
The male northern cardinals are imperial looking bright red things. They visited my apartment almost everyday throughout winter, although I saw fewer and fewer of them as the days went by. The female cardinals, with their elegant brown coat and bright orange beaks were so hard to find except on weekends when the curtain is open all day. In my opinion the females are unfairly held in low esteem because of their color.
We have been seeing warblers and chats fly past us quickly. They sit on our patio sometimes but only for a second, never long enough for me to observe them.
---
Lately we have had new visitors. The mourning doves, grey and brown come over every once in a while, seemingly oblivious to our presence. Despite their dull color, they are pleasantly delicate to look at and manage to grab your attention with their subtle grace if not anything else.
---
In winter, and more so in Fall we saw a lot of ring-billed gulls by the reflecting pool in the capitol. They are perhaps used to visitors, for they are impervious to tourists who come dead close to them. The gulls have a very stately appearance. Watching them circle overhead with their broad wings or glide smoothly in an effortless manner is pure pleasure. This is one of the few things I look forward to during the frigid days ahead.
---
The reflection pool at the Lincoln memorial and the Potomac river are home to a lot of dabbling ducks. The beautiful male mallards with their glossy green heads, brown bodies and black tails must give their dull brown female counterparts a complex if they don’t manage to attract them. The one thing I haven’t noticed of both mallards that I have seen in pictures is their bright blue wings as they take flight.
Some of my most memorable experiences with birds has been with mallards. Sitting in the Potomac with our bare legs in the water, Anand, Tapi and I observed the female mallards approach us from a distance to almost a foot away, staying put for a bit and then moving past us. The only dampener to the experience was having sewer rats clandestinely run past us, their cold sleazy bodies touching our feet.
---
American crows are jet black and shrewd looking, very unlike the grey-breasted Indian crows that have a gentle appearance. I haven’t been able to tell them apart from the ravens, except sometimes when they seem to look smaller and less shaggy. I am told the ravens are usually solitary, but I cant remember seeing large flocks of crows either. They seem to be in small groups of five or ten.
---
I have been seeing hawks and eagles soaring in the sky. But sometimes its hard to tell the difference despite acquiring some theoretical knowledge and seeing pictures. It may be that I haven’t studied them at all despite what I would have you believe.
---
Every once in a while I come across a black bird with a beautiful white tail. I have been wanting to know what that bird is. I hope I find out some day. My ignorance is only making me more and more obsessed with this bird. I look for it everywhere.
---
I am eager to learn the names of three bees that I saw this year. One im particular had enchanting features. It had a beautiful round glossy yellow body with black polka dots and a black head. I am also keen on learning the names of three butterflies that I found in the trail in virginia. I have taken a lot of pictures of flowers and am embarrassed to say that I don’t know the names of many. Such a shame!
---
The european starlings are still here. Their bewitching black coat with a peacock green shine is getting duller and the white spots all over the body are more apparent.They are still just as evasive, but even from a distance they wobbly walk is just as adorable.
---
Where did the new black squirrels and grey rabbits in the apartment building come from? The more I see them, the less I see the deer and the geese.
