They Gather.

Dear Ones Who Bird & Watch,

They are gathering!  Materials for the nests.  A pair of starlings has visited from the creek twice; she gathering only hen feathers- 8 or 9 in her beak, so many that one drifted very slowly down from her flight back to their tree.  He selected only small sticks, and again, several- perhaps 6 short lengths.  They arrived together, and gathered within a few feet of each other, and they then flew away, in tandem.  Others, too, are collecting.  The boxes are bluebird-filled, and the crows and jays are at work in the trees.  It sounds a little like this, and a lot like this.

 

These nest images were photographed from a beautiful collection at the Santa Barbara Natural History museum.  This museum is dear to me for its radiant dioramas, and also because it is less modernized  than many museums.  By that I mean that it is still filled with artifacts; with 'stuff'- there are very few of the plastic-dominated, touch screen "interactive" exhibits that museums seem to be so hell-bent on installing.  It is filled with vitrines and musty treasures of all kinds: ornithological, zoological, piscine, stellar, geological and anthropological.  It is the kind of place that sends an artist to the studio, a great wealth of inspiration is shelved there, both visual and conceptual.

I hesitate to offer you too much to study, to appreciate, at one time, but, if you only have 1.2 minutes in your day, let this be the link you click.  Of course, should you fall in love, on sight, on first whisper, with Messiaen, as I did, well, you can requite some of that sweet longing here.