According to Google, the above is an emu feather. As I found it this morning on our porch, I find that highly unlikely. It is long and delicate and I had trouble getting a photo of it.
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There is a peacock living up the hill above us, but I don’t think this can have come from that bird, so perhaps I should spend a day glued to the window.
To see who comes by.
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There’s always something to watch.
Yesterday, it was fledgling sparrows, dirt-bathing.
Not a very good capture but it shows how little attention they give to the baby starling.
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They may be small in stature, but sparrows are indomitable. Most other bird visitors avoid the feeders when fledgling starlings descend on them but the sparrows carry on as normal.
They are survivors, adapting as necessary which is no doubt why I have seen them on every continent except Antarctica.
The variety living in our hedges are mostly house sparrows.
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But this year we have seen quite a number of white-crowned sparrows.
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And sometimes we see song sparrows.
They all appear to coexist quite happily, socialising noisily in the hedges.
Pop outside for a moment and you’ll hear them nattering away till they suddenly catch sight of you and their conversation stops as if you’ve caught them being rude about you. Walk away and it immediately starts up again.
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These are accommodating little birds. When Notso the female cowbird got left behind during migration one Fall, she blended in with the sparrows becoming part of their flock.
They may be considered ordinary because they are so numerous and brown, but I am very fond of sparrows. Funnily, when we first came to this home, the only sparrows we saw were at Hannaford’s supermarket where they appeared to be in charge of the carts. I always enjoyed going there to see the birds hopping about:
“Here, take this cart. The wheels go round!”
You felt they were on top of things. As we returned our cart one day, I said I wished we had sparrows at home and I presume they took it as an invitation because before long, our hedges were overflowing with sparrows and next time we went to Hannaford’s the carts had been abandoned! We decided they must have followed us home.
Most improbable, but we liked the idea.
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A few years ago, another sort of bird could be seen in the hanging feeders.
Grant named it Odd Bird because it was not in fact a bird at all.
Since the original Little Red went to her celestial abode, we’d not had any odd birds.
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Then, at the end of May, a granddaughter came to claim the title.
This one is a really odd bird, no doubt because she is moulting. She is also nursing babies, so life must be a little hectic for her.
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“Mine too. missus. You’ve no idea.”
“I’m at the end of my tether!”
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“You think you’ve got it bad? Look what I have to put up with!”
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Nature just amazing!
Definitely an emu feather. Keep a close watch for its owner!
Thank you, Carolyn, for the wonderful post devoted to nature, with your excellent photography!
Joanna
I think that is an Emu feather. It may have blown in on the wind from somewhere, or been collected as nest material by a smaller bird. Somewhere near you people must be keeping Emus. There are quite a few examples of people keeping them in Norfolk, some reasonably close to where we live.
Best wishes, Pete.
Emu on the loose!
I loved how you showed motherhood not as a grand idea but as a series of soft, instinctive acts. The way you notice these tiny exchanges — the comfort, the watchfulness, the trust — brings such depth to an ordinary moment. It’s a lovely piece.
Your photos of all your feathered friends are lovely (and love the video – I always watch the birds in our garden too when they take a dirt bath) … but it’s the beautiful ‘odd kind of birds’ that steal the show (just don’t tell the birds 😉).