Of birds and bees

I like bird watching and animal watching and given a chance, I like to feed them as well, trying to treat them as the family member. (Read cutsie squirrels , gander and deer).

I love color. Maybe its the borderline artist in me. And god has given the birds are deal of color. As if he took each of them and painted them one by one at leisure. A palette of shades and tones and no photograph or painting can draw it that beautifully like god's another gift to the mankind, the naked eye sees. So even if I paint a little and know a lot about photography, I read and research thanks to google about the bird seen.

India is a tropical country and wherever there is lush greenery, you see a deluge of beauty. I associate green parrots/ parakeets with my college where we could see a colony of them, especially in winter mornings, with their spring green long plumage (which is sadly cut off when they are caged and sold off). Chirping and chatting these free birdies spent their wintry days and me gazing at them, whatever idle gossip that took place around me just becoming white noise. I would be so mesmerized by them.

I associate sparrows (male and female,  both beautiful but both oh so different in coloring, even if they have brown in them, the male having black around the eyes and female having dotted wings) , and crows (both the smaller ones, with a dull grey face and completely shiny dark ravens or dom kavla in my maternal language ) with my birth home where there was a huge common tree near the balcony (which incidentally flowered in summer of cute pink flowers .....called mimosa tree...researched as I was writing). Common then but since Mumbai is fast loosing tree cover, they are fast disappearing as well. A not that common kingfisher was a welcome sight as well.

I will always associate amercian robin  with North carolina where I first saw it and was utterly fascinated with its golden orange brown torso, eyes accustomed to black and brown specks. Cardinal (state bird of NC) which I saw rare but was always mesmerized by its striking red body and american short billed pigeon  (whose hu..huhu...I always associate with NC and which I really thought belonged to an owl, till I saw this guy perched on a roof making that sound and made me giggle at).

Nevada pampered us with beautiful hummingbirds (blue one seen only once but brown one was a common sight). . I still remember the first time we saw a tiny bright blue orb which looked liked a butterfly on airplane speed. A very beautiful sight to savour and remember.

And back in new jersey, along with the usual mates of sparrows and crows, my eyes delight in blackbirds gray cat birds , grey heron  , egrets  blue jays (which when I saw for the first time, I stood right at the side walk, gawking at the pastel blue beauty. Of-course since there is a thicket behind our place, we see  robins and cardinals as well. There is a small stream which when it rains becomes a rivulet (which explains egret and heron as there are small fishes in the stream. Some people enjoy fishing there, though I wonder if they have caught a tuna or a salmon. Jokes apart, there I have seen ducks or mallards maybe Somehow  ganders with their population explosion have become an every day affair. .

You may wonder these pictures and why did I put them up but I had to do that for my own sake. I love to know what I see in my daily observations and something as preety as these birds are definitely worth than just a mention right??