Sunday bird blogging

This goldfinch may look slightly disheveled from the April breezes, but there's no denying that he's golden, and growing more so every day.

Compare to just a few weeks ago.

Saturday reflections

I haven't posted an ordinary window reflection in a while, so here's a closeup of windows in what I still call the RCA building, aka the other side of 30 Rock.

Urban poetry

A fire escape draped for renovations.

I love the way the net darkens the blue of the sky and the abstract of the black shapes against the blues.

Sunday bird blogging

From the sublime to the mundane: two male house sparrows sitting on a fence, thinking about whatever it is sparrows think about.

Although I'm always appreciative of the miracle that is Central Park, where I can watch an egret fishing in a pond a few yards from Fifth Avenue, it's still the small common birds, the ones you can and do see anywhere, that I love the most. Yes, I seek out the pretty little warblers when they pass through twice a year, am transfixed by the big scary raptors glowering from the treetops, and went dutifully up to the Shakespeare Garden to see the cute little saw-whet owl everyone was talking about.

But none of them make me smile as much as the finches and sparrows and titmice, with their chattering and socializing, their arguments and courtships, their hopping and digging and sudden swoops into flight. They're like Sufi poems, little dervishes, exclamation points in the great prayer that is life in this world, in this universe.

Saturday geometries

The Art Deco West 50th Street entrance to the Exxon building in Rockefeller Center.

La primavera ha venido

Nadie sabe cómo ha sido...

"Spring has come/No one knows how."

Or so says Antonio Machado.

I actually went outside today. Sometimes I forget that I am allowed to leave the office during the day, that there is an old custom called "the lunch hour" and that although seldom observed, it is still technically legal.

Of course, I wasn't the only one who decided that a beautiful spring day was perfect for lunch in the park. There was a great egret across the pond from me, staring fixedly into the water, waiting for his meal to swim by.

Of course, as soon as I sat down to eat my own lunch, the egret caught a fish. By the time I was able to focus again, he'd scurried back into the underbrush to eat in privacy.

Urban poetry

When one fence just isn't good enough.

Breakfast at Evodia

Bonus bird blogging.

Holly Golightly cheered herself up with breakfast at Tiffany's. During the winter, when the bird feeders are up at Evodia in the Ramble, sitting on a bench watching the birds while I have a cup of coffee and a bagel is my Holly moment. When I have had a bad week (and this was a very very very bad week) an hour with the birds is a tonic.

Now that spring's officially here, the feeders will be gone soon, and the birds are starting to switch to their courting clothes. I took the picture of the American goldfinch on the left yesterday; the photo below is from last weekend. A few more weeks and the males will be bright yellow all over.

Sunday bird blogging

This rather rotund creature is a fox sparrow, the kind of fairly rare sighting that gets all of the diehard birders in the park very excited, while those who are less committed to checking every possible species off on one list or another respond with a collective Huh?

I'm just glad that there were more knowledgeable witnesses around to identify it for me -- the sparrows in the field guides have a sad tendency to all look alike to me.

Geometries

A flashback.

This is Lisbon two years ago. I recently started using the various Topaz utilities, and I was able to clean this picture up enough to make it worth posting. I always liked the patterns of the pink and gray stone, with the black accents around the windows, so I'm glad it was salvageable.

Urban poetry

A recent taillight shot.

I like the wavy reflection of the streetlamp and sky above the clean sleek lines of the white metal and red glass.

Bonus bird blogging

Every New Yorker is familiar with the scenario -- you drop by a favorite restaurant, planning on a quiet lunch, and the place is full of European tourists.

This is a European goldfinch that has been showing up at the feeders in Central Park for several weeks now. It probably escaped from captivity, since they're never seen in the wild here, and whenever it appears, all of the birders and photographers run to gawk at it, ignoring the perfectly lovely American goldfinches at the same feeder.

Everyone loves a glamorous foreigner.