Uncle Brian Speaks for the Trees: My first bird (for me, mostly trees for birds) walk

The Universe recently called me to engage with Burnet Woods: (1) getting to know the trees and other beings there, and (2) in active dialogue with the Cincinnati Parks Board and other humans to hopefully try to see how beautiful it is without being augmented by brick, mortar, and pavement for certain human pursuits rather unrelated to nature. Please see my previous blog entry Burnet Woods and Recent Development Proposals for background.

I have yet to follow through on item (2) above, but yesterday, I showed up for a bird walk sponsored by the #PreserveBurnetWoods organization. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the six other wonderful people in our group, and heard many different birds that were expertly identified by them from sounds and distant sightings. My new friend Anne Oliver had a marvelous Swarovski spotting scope on a stable lightweight tripod, and managed to train it on most of the birds that we met. I got a great view of a few. I can't say if they were more shy than usual that morning, but I was unable to get photos of any. I have come to the conclusion that I need a longer focal length telephoto lens for bird photography.

What was pleasantly surprising to me is that this group of longtime birders were perfectly willing to talk in detail with this newbie about the trees that these birds call home, either on a year - round or a "vacation - time" basis. It shouldn't have been surprising, for I am realizing that naturalists like birders understand a sacred Lakota native concept very well: "Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ", which literally translates as "All are Related". We can't love the birds without loving and caring for the trees. So with the glass that I had, I chose to go for easier targets on the few images that I caught. I intentionally post links to Flickr in here so that I don't have to compromise on resolution. That's particularly useful on the fisheye wide-angle shots. You can click on the caption hyperlinks to view on my Flickr site page, and then click once more with the magnifying glass pointer up on Flickr to zoom in and take a closer look at these beautiful old trees! Many thanks to Brian Wulker for identifying the trees for me. I hope you enjoy looking at their images here, and perhaps find time to meet them in the flesh!