Bird

A number of things come to mind when I hear the word “bird”–a Thanksgiving turkey, maybe, or a rude hand gesture–but I’d like to offer you some better options. In this family, our favorite “bird” is Brittany.

Brittany and Andy – Birthday week on the Great Barrier Reef – November 2023

I don’t remember when or why her sisters started calling Brittany “Bird,” but it stuck. Even these two cuties are in on it.

Beckett – 11.24.2023 – photo by Chelsea
Brooks 11.24.2023 – Now officially allergy-free! – photo by Chelsea

They call her Birdo, or maybe Bird-o, I’m not sure how it’s spelled. But I’m thinking of birds especially this week, because Brittany has recently taken some great photos of Australia’s gorgeous bird life. Enjoy!

Australian Fairy-wren – photo by Brittany
Eclectus Parrot – Australia – photo by Brittany
Black-capped Lory – Australia – photo by Brittany

And maybe not as beautiful, but impressive all the same is the rare Cassowary. This photo was taken with a long lens. You can’t get this close to a Cassowary without serious repercussions. There’s a sign in the area reminding people to be “Casso-wary.” It says to remember they are WILD and they HATE you (with all caps for the essential details). They have massive CLAWS and they’re always ANGRY.  Hence the zoom lens. Still, they were pretty excited to see this one in the wild.

Cassowary – Australia – photo by Brittany

And now we’re back to turkeys.

Australian Brush-turkey – photo by Brittany

Brittany and Andy had an excellent trip celebrating their birthday week, the 12th (Brittany) and the 18th (Andy). The 18th was also Helen’s birthday, an impressive 96 now (but she always was impressive). Hope it was happy, Helen! The 18th also would have been David’s and my 45th wedding anniversary, which hit me a bit harder this year than I expected, but I was surrounded by dear ones throughout that week and weekend, then had a lovely Thanksgiving with other treasured friends. What a treat.

I’m thankful for all my memories of past festivities and even memories of hard times when others showed up in various ways. I hope you, too, have wonderful memories and people who show up when you need them most. I want to be that kind of person.

There will likely be more from Australia in the months to come, but if you can’t wait and this post didn’t give you enough birds, here are a few links to other posts with birds. Try here and here and here and here.

And now one last bird photo from days gone by in France.

La Rochelle Peacock – June 2014

I miss my La Rochelle friends. J’espère que vous allez très bien, Pascale et Jacky. I will forever be grateful for all our adventures.

Blessings on all of you this holiday season!

4 thoughts on “Bird”

  1. Thanks for sharing Brittany’s exotic bird photography! I have a “thing” for birds and are a favorite of God’s creation. So fun to enjoy photos of ones I’ve never seen (or likely to never see in person). And the grandsons are pretty cute as well! 😉

  2. Loved your name and the bird pictures! I was so surprised about the Black capped Lory that they HATE us. Who knew birds had such emotions. I am reading “ Wings for My Flight. The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney ROCK. Fascinating!

    1. No, it’s the Cassowary that’s dangerous. They’re huge. The females can grow to 5.5 feet tall and weigh 170 lbs. I imagine they only attack when they feel threatened and human-style emotion may have nothing to do with it, but it was a cute sign that may have prevented a few unfortunate mishaps!

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.