AUTHORS NOTE: Due to the physical stresses of surgical recovery The Celebration Of silence will only be posting once daily for the month of March. We will resume our twice daily postings in April!
Welcome back readers! For those of you following along at home welcome to another episode of The Recovery Series! For those just joining us, check out the full recovery series HERE
As I mentioned in my last post, the balance issues I have been plagued with since my surgery have left me with limited freedom. Thanks to this, all my usual birding haunts are inaccessible to me. Much to my delight however, these constraints have forced me to get creative, which has lead to a whole new world of birds just outside my own door.
For the first few weeks I watched from my patio at the morning gathering of crows on the nearby rooftops and missed my birds quite terribly. Other than a few outings with friends I was effectively trapped at home and staring longingly out into the distance.
One day as I watched the crows at their morning antics it struck me. Those were birds! They had feathers, and flew through the air, and squawked! That was what a bird did! Quickly I ran inside and grabbed my trusty camera.
Not my best effort I admit.But I had found my birds and from that point on things seemed a little easier.
After a week I was steady enough to be trusted to take the short elevator ride down to my buildings common green space. While I didn’t find and birds in the area despite two hours of hopeful watching, I did manage to capture a somewhat artful shot of the view.
Somewhat mollified I packed up and headed back toward the elevator, only to finally see what I had been missing for the last two hours.
Right in front of me and in perfect position for nesting season, a beautiful crows nest with signs of recent habitation.
Intrigued by this magical world outside my door I watched and marvelled at all the things I had been missing not two feet from my nose. Soaring gulls wheeling past my balcony, pigeons perching and fighting on a ledge, a flock of furious crows staging a screaming whirling frenzy around a Cooper’s Hawk (They were too far away to catch unfortunately but it was a truly amazing spectacle). Soon the day came where my balance allowed me to take a short walk to a local community garden.
Stanley Park it was most certainly not, but I found sitting there watching the local residents to be as enjoyable as hunting with the herons or drifting with the ducks. I made friends quickly with the local birds having armed myself with refills for the community feeder and quickly discovered an unlikely resident.
This lovely young baby pigeon (also called a squab) showed up at the first sign of food and gave me such a pitiful look that he got the lion’s share of the feeder refill. It’s not common to see them out this young, he’s not yet full size and hasn’t quite figured out the flying thing yet but he is certainly game to hop around in the mass of pigeons that show up for breakfast and fight for his share. I’m not sure what the story is but he certainly has given me a rare opportunity to capture the beginnings of his journey.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more from my new world!
The Celebration Of Silence 