It's interesting, but one of the many coronavirus pandemic outcomes seems to be a renewed interest in nature. Just ask a Virginia birder who reports that trails she's always had to herself are now congested. Or ask a Maryland birder who finds her usual "haunts" filled with too many people. There are many possible reasons for … Continue reading Birds Haven’t Changed
Category: Bird life
Bird-Related Grace
Before I begin, please note that some of what follows might be a little obscure unless you're familiar with my previous 2 blog posts. It's funny, but as a writer, albeit a middling one, I feel something of an obligation to blog more often now, if it means providing my readers with a little more … Continue reading Bird-Related Grace
Common Birds
It was a year ago that I wrote: "Be Still and Know." And I still believe, but now even more so, that stillness is, as Mary Oliver put it, “one of the doors into the temple.” Gosh, I love those words. I'm a Mary Oliver fan from way back. The longer I bird and the … Continue reading Common Birds
More Thoughts on Birds and Bird Photography
I mentioned in my last blog that fall migration was well underway and that a lone juvenile Green Heron lingered at Lakeside Park in Chesapeake, VA. I then imagined the young bird "flying solo to coastal Venezuela." Later, I got to thinking about a photo I'd taken in May: a photo of a Green Heron … Continue reading More Thoughts on Birds and Bird Photography
A Few Thoughts on Birds and Bird Photography
I paid an early morning visit a few days ago to Lakeside Park in Chesapeake, VA—the park with the litter, the noise, the Canada Goose droppings, the algal bloom, and on and on, yet also the park that was recently host to a thriving community of nesting birds, including many Green Herons. I'm reminded of … Continue reading A Few Thoughts on Birds and Bird Photography
Nearing Season’s End
I visited Lakeside Park, that small, unheralded, yet surprisingly birdy, Chesapeake, VA park a week or so ago. The park was noticeably different. It had an abandoned and lifeless feel. All that spring and early summer bird activity and noise that I'd written about in my prior 3 blogs had abated. Roadway noise and cicada … Continue reading Nearing Season’s End
The Green Heron: Final Thoughts
If you've read my last 2 blogs, you'll know that I've been photographing, observing, and learning about Green Herons, and birds in general, through my regular trips to an unheralded, 11-acre park in Chesapeake, VA: Lakeside Park. I've referred to that park—but this is true of so many city parks—as a "bird world in miniature." … Continue reading The Green Heron: Final Thoughts
An Ode to a City Park
In an earlier blog, "Trash Destroys," I mentioned an area in Chesapeake, VA known by locals as "the curve," where I'd come across a diverse pile of junk that included golf shoes, Gatorade bottles, foam boot liners, and a lawn chair. I remarked, “This jumbled mess of a trash pile was just feet from an … Continue reading An Ode to a City Park
Elizabeth River Bird Blog 