12 January, 2020            Symmetry

If these 2 were perched there 365 days/year, I would never get tired of it

Mackey and Turner this morning. Another view I’d be grateful to see 365 days/year

It’s possible “symmetry” is not what my niece was implying – but that’s the way I interpreted it. Last week I sent her a picture of Mackey and Turner on a rock on the river, then a few minutes later a pair of owls on a branch. She wrote “These photos go really well together.” Possibly I should have titled this blog post “Pair of deuces.” Last week I took the dog picture at 10:20 and the owl picture at 10:40. This week I took the dog picture at 9:15 and the owl picture at 9:35. So precisely twenty minutes from dogs on the river to owls on the branch both weeks. 

Incidentally, I photographed the owls again an hour after the first pictures this morning (at 10:35). And last week I took the first owl pictures at 10:40 and the second pictures at 12:00. Slower hike. It will surprise no reader that I wander off in this minutiae from time to time. Evelyn corrects my grammar and spelling but doesn’t rein in my meandering writing. 

So what better way to rein in my own meandering writing than with a bluebird. So I “finished” the first set of owl pictures at 9:40 this morning. I took this bluebird picture 45 minutes later at 10:25. There is never a bad time to see a bluebird: 

Not only is there never a bad time to see a bluebird, I smile every time – every time. That is a treasure by itself.

Speaking of birds there’s never a bad time to see, I caught a glimpse of a Red-shouldered hawk Monday. You can’t make a blue sky look better – every blue sky is perfect. But I’ve taken a lot of variations of this picture, and for some reason the sky looks a little bluer when there’s a Red-shouldered hawk in the foreground: 

Red-shouldered hawk at Bryan Park this week:

That’s it! Short one this week! But a tiny bit more geeky info here – I photographed an owl on that branch for the first time this season on November 30. I don’t hike at the park every single day, but I’m there two or three times a week. And since November 30, there has been either one or two owls on that branch every single time I’ve walked past. Each time I see them it’s a gift. 

Have a great week, 

Jay