Shout-out to Eve for increasing the amount of her subscription. Wow, thank you!
In the Weekend Open Thread, Em said she did some bird photography at Pt. Reyes National seashore. She just sent a picture she took of a quail, and it’s too good not to share on the front page.
Very, very dapper!
I can see why you’re proud of that photo, Em! It’s beautiful! How far away from the bird were you when you took the photo? You’re inspiring me to try to get some good pictures of the family of sandhill cranes that live in our neighborhood. They’re not at all shy of people, but I would imagine a wild quail would be a little more skittish around humans!
Hi Laura, Glad you like it! Thank you also to Mike, imagine my surprise to see it! Very kind of you to make it a post. The camera I used is a Sony Cyber-Shot with 30x optical zoom, and I think I was about 18 feet away. I say give the sandhill cranes a try! FKAWaldenPond, love that painting! Head ornamentation in the animal kingdom (people included) deserves it’s own wonderful book. I hope everyone is headed for a great week, may it be kind to all of us.
I have a book that’s just about head wraps (NOT recipes!) from cultures all over the world. And I remember going to a museum that had taxidermed birds and seeing the connection between them and Victorian feathered headgear, demand for which drove some birds nearly to extinction. There’s a children’s book called “She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head” about two women from Boston who gather prominent people together to protect birds and form the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Murray C., Thanks, I’ll look for that book! Many years ago I had wanted to be a children’s book illustrator. I still illustrate from time to time, and love learning about children’s books. The story I’ve told people about the Audubon Society is that it hosted the first & longest running citizen science project in the US, where people from all the states participate in a bird count, and report in what they see–now going on 116 years.
Em! I’m an illustrator, too – well, WAS – I didn’t continue when computers became the norm – I’m a brush and paint sort of gal. I did early age phonics and math books but never picture books – have several friends who have, tho’ the field has changed and they became very disenchanted with it.
I’ve been wondering…how did a gal like you get the name Murray?
It happened long ago when someone, when introduced to me mistook my name and said “Murray?” and I said……”Yes.” So it’s my nickname.
lol…I get all kinds of mispronunciations of my name. If it’s not someone I’m likely to see again, I give them two tries before saying “yes” to whatever they say on the third attempt. I used to get customers at the bookstore who seemed determined to get my name right. I had to just agree or we’d never get through the transaction. Not conducive to the company goal of “fast cashiering.” (Sometimes I just “forgot” to wear my name tag.)
I also acquired the nickname “Bob” years ago, which a few people still call me.
Hi Murray, That’s great to know! I’m an old fashioned painter and still use a brush on paper. I like to see the brush strokes on the page. While there’s computer software tools to try and achieve that effect, it’s not quite the same. I also don’t do anything to my photos that couldn’t have been done in a darkroom. The medium is always part of the message, and I’m not entirely comfortable with the message that what you do by hand isn’t good enough. In all hopes that once in awhile you still paint!
I’m in a craft guild and do decorative painting on wood and paper and I teach water color to adults at a local high school, so I at least keep a toehold in the arts. And I’m with you, for all that the computer can do I like seeing the human touch in artworks.
Murray C., you are cool. 🙂
Cool, huh? I wish I still had a resume, I’d definitely include that commendation!?
Hear, hear!
My week is only four days this week. 🙂
Marvelous pic!
Grammar Bird. Great pic.
I’ve been planning to knit some apostrophes for a long time now. This pic will finally get my needles out!
This is a new concept to me – knitting apostrophes – do you then stuff them and go around correcting people’s grammar???? In their pattern books???? Do, tell! ?
In one of the local newspapers, there’s a column called “Bulletin Board” which is written by the readers, very much like the comments section here. There are regular submitters (with pseudonyms), many with their own special subjects, or regular topics. One of my favorite topics is the “Apostrophe Redistribution Center” for anyone who discovers things where an apostrophe isn’t where it belongs, or was added where it wasn’t needed, or was left off. It seems to be a subject many didn’t do well in, at school.
My husband and I always seem to notice things like that -he’s even more of a stickler than I am, maybe because he read law at Oxford (never practiced). He corrects me on personal pronouns when I slip up, to the point when I mentioned as the object of a sentence the play “the King and I” he corrected it to “me” before he could really consider what he was saying. I never let him forget it!?
PS where does the knitting come in?
The bit about knitting is meant for Deborah Gerish – sorry!
FABulous and in such good taste.☺️
But the apostrophe’s make them so cute! I was in Arizona, around the Sonoran desert a few years ago, and there were quails running around. So cute!
Sugimoto, I recall your name from CO, it’s been wonderful to see your messages now and again!
*blush*
Em – the depth of field, the cross lighting, the composition – it’s all perfect. In my family, we’d call that pic “wall quality”. Thanks Mike for posting this for us.
Ms Can Opener, You are very kind, and I appreciate the the compliment! It’s a hot summer day, and your words will propel me out into the woods with my camera!
Wow pretty bird, amazing photo!
I LOVE quails. I saw when all the time as a child so I always get a wave of nostalgia when I see a pic of them. Truly amazing photo. Can you boop a beak? Cause that’s what this picture makes me want to do.
I don’t see why beak-booping would not be acceptable.
For some reason I have an image of a nice sort of Church Lady, white gloves,
pince nez, clutching her purse closely – “I see no reason for beak-booping to be off the table.”
“Church lady” just sends my mind here:
Oh, yeah.?
Didn’t you know? All the cool kids wear forehead plumage nowadays! See, my girl Tess Trueheart rocks her plumes:
Hers looks more like a parenthesis.
CUTE!
A little punctuation about the head is a good thing, it’s a reminder not to start writing just in emoji. Go Tess Trueheart!