Wednesday, November 4, 2009

moss and feathers


(click to enlarge)

a day of rainshowers. in between, fragments of blue sky. and this bird. sitting there, on the roof of a garden shack. looking towards the southern horizon. it's a Gartenrotschwanz - and with that, a migrating bird. the other birds of its kind are gone already. this one is still here. it's easy to recognize it: it's the only with white wing feathers.

i wonder if it decided to stay. to not take the journey. i think of it as an ancestor bird, one that has the gift to turn into a ghost bird during winter, to sidestep the elements, the usual circle of arrivals and departures.

then again, maybe it's just looking for the last insects.

(and now i just looked up the english word for Gartenrotschwanz: Common Redstart).
.

2 comments:

karyn said...

an absolutely stunning photo ~

Dorothee said...

thanks! -- i was surprised by the way it came out, too: i took the photo through the terrace door, and from there it was a couple of meters to the point where the bird was sitting. i zoomed, of course, but still didn't expect the photo to come out so detailed.