Day 288 of 365

Soggy autumn day

I was hoping to spend one of my days off this week on another drive through northern New Jersey's rural highlands to take in the foliage, but the weather didn't cooperate. But I didn't want to miss the peak days of my favorite tree in the yard, so I opened the window next to it and shot from the dining room -- staying dry the whole time.

"The patient pine," Wyoming, May 2006

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

How could the patient pine have known
The morning breeze would come,
Or humble flowers anticipate
The insect's noonday hum,-

from "The Inward Morning," Henry David Thoreau

"Plumpy parrot," New Jersey, January 2006

"Plumpy parrot," New Jersey, January 2006
I've previously posted a shot of these guys and intended to go back for more, but I haven't made it up the street with my camera lately. I should, because when the light is right, they come out so beautifully. I have a handful of other shots from this day, and even though it's a good shot of the bird, they tend to be in shadow and not as brilliantly colored as a result. 

A parrot in Edgewater, January 2006

There are a flock of Quaker parrots that build what amount to nest condos in trees and, unfortunately, on power lines and connectors to utility poles in Edgewater, New Jersey. They're true Jersey dwellers now -- they don't flee in the winter. Even now, if you come down the cliff from Cliffside Park on Route 5, after the hairpin turn, if you find yourself far enough back at a red light, all you have to do is turn off the radio to hear the squawking from above. The cacophony of dozens of birds is loud enough to be heard through closed windows. It's beautiful.