F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Birds

Bird Watching

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Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)

I must say I am loving this new camera of mine! As I’d previously mentioned, I recently purchased a Nikon D3400. And I love the thing!

As I sat having lunch early yesterday afternoon, I spotted three birds alighting upon our now-bare lilac bush out back. They were so cute!

I grabbed my camera.

I began taking shots of them through the patio door’s glass, not wanting to disturb them by opening the door, but I eventually did (my wife decided we should do it). You see if you can tell the difference in the images captured below. Anyway, I just began ripping off some shots, and it was so funny, but one of the birds just sat there, striking pose after pose just for me! Looking right at me. It was a beautiful thing!

I couldn’t figure out what kind of bird it was (I flipped through my bird field book—yes I have one for birds as a well as for trees—and searched online), so I posted it on Facebook, and a friend-of-a-friend identified them (well, her husband did, she just passed it along) as Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco. They are such beautiful birds! I used the automatic mode of the D3400, but it was f/6.3, 165mm, ISO 200, 1/1250th of a sec. 3000 x 2847…but I compressed all the images.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)
Dark-eyed, Gray-headed Junco (© F. P. Dorchak, December 19, 2016)

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The Dead Bird

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The Dead Bird. Holbrook, AZ, March 22, 2015.
The Dead Bird. Holbrook, AZ, March 22, 2015.

During our road trip to the Scottsdale, Arizona last week, we’d stopped in Holbrook, AZ to overnight, and while there had taken a couple walks down the main street (or what we thought to be the main street) of the town. On our second jaunt, during the day (our first was at night), when we could actually see stuff, I’d spotted it.

The dead bird.

How fitting, huh, that I, who writes about the weird and the dead, should spot the poor creature?

But I found this kinda sad…that the poor winged beast had somehow caught itself in a way that had it (apparently) hanging by its neck.

Now, how the heck had that happened?

It was creepy and sad to observe that end to a life that had known free breezes and unfettered airspace. A creature that freely did what most humans long (and literally dream) to do.

But, there it was…dangling from the edge of an abandoned gas station’s overhang. It’s little head craned all the way back at an unnatural angle, beak slightly opened. Something holding it up there.

This scene just kinda held me, transfixed. We all just stood there and stared at it. We were on a fun road trip and seeing this there—at least to me—affected me in (yes…) a weird way that was actually kinda hard to describe, even now.

Death.

On a crappy and dilapidated building.

And how the hell had that happened?!

I mean, think about it…here’s this pigeon…flying (or walking) around…on this overhang…what could possibly have happened to “grab” a bird and have it hang from its neck like that?

Did it reach down to get at a bug in a narrow opening up there, then some sharp jag of metal did its deed?

Was some nefarious trap set?

Did it fly into it and somehow jam its head in there?

I don’t know, but to me it was simultaneously repulsive and riveting. Thought-provoking, obviously.

Tragic.

I’ve since e-mailed the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce, hoping it will remove the bird from the roof, if it hasn’t already dropped.

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