A View To A Kill Averted

The bitter cold winds are here again, ripping our giant willow's hanging branch stings back and forth until many fall on our deck, a most unfavorable consequence of being so close to the willow and the winds coming across our lake. All the hundreds of backyard birds that frequent my feeders are gone for now. Even the Yellow-shafted flickers ( a large beautiful woodpecker if you don't know) have devoured all the remaining black sunflower seeds and hanging suet cakes. But this winter, there has been much to enjoy from my kitchen table and lakeside viewpoint. But now, the wind chill must be under a minus 10 degrees and getting worse.

One incident with a flying predator bird attempting to catch his breakfast here needs to be described as something indescribable. A contradiction of perspective, mine or those little backyard birds flying upward to avoid becoming that predator's meal one morning a couple weeks ago. Words sort of fail to come to tell how I saw it happen only a few feet and then inches from my indoor chair. Words fail because as it happened, the speed of the whole thing left a blur in my vision and too swift to even shout out a moment occurring in less the time it takes to let out a quick exclamation. Even my many years of being a witness and participant in many things wild did not prepare me for this eye to eye contact with an attacking male Goshawk, a fierce no holds barred predator of small birds.

The whole eye contact came within a second somewhere near 8:45am one fine low wind and bright morning a couple weeks ago. While sitting here usually writing in my journal about recent lake and weather events, suddenly and without any sound warning, all the feeding backyard birds lifted up as quickly as possible from their positions on the ground or on the varied feeders near the deck.

That's when I first spotted him going at top speed, all a blur to me. He was coming in only a couple feet off the ground between our giant willow and our deck to surprise any left over feeding birds there. Suddenly, and as surprised as he must have been, he was flying as a complete blur to my eyes into the same small kitchen window I was looking through. In an instant from first view of him he had lifted up at blurred speed within twenty feet up another eight feet to suddenly appear coming right for me to crash into the window. But first he had turn ninety degrees away from our deck doorway and only a foot away from it and come directly to my window view. I saw a blur and instinctively shut my eyes. In the twinkling of an eye, he had turned again only another foot from crashing and twisting sideways and then upside down another fifteen feet along our house wall going north again to freedom in the air. He had escaped in one blurred instant a fatal crash.

My fellow human companion in life, Nancy,  was sitting across the table from me with head down reading a magazine. Before I could let out a single cry to look, it was already over, the hawk was moving that fast. I really can't say any more about it. In all my years of viewing hunting hawks, I had never encountered such ability at such close quarters. It is very difficult to think of any other creature, even another bird, that at top speed could pull off such an instant maneuver to avoid death. I  sat stunned and remained speechless for quite a while, unsure if there were any appropriate words.

Beauty and the Beach-Go For It

OK, let's proceed onward to another topic other than all the beauty and the beasts on our North American beaches. Hot bodies only grab just so many looks. Then its on to another viewpoint, eyes searching for bolder meaning in newly found realities, one can only take in just so much skin.

Great Lakes beaches are at the top of the finest freshwater beaches in the entire world. I have meandered along many of the best ones around Michigan shorelines, including remote islands where the only sounds you usually hear all day are waves and wings, that's a great title for a workshop!  Waves and Wings! Think I 'll use it soon as a title for an all season series of wandering beaches with artists who really want to see more details in their immediate surroundings and who really desire some deeper connections with creations not made by human hands. But back to the main topic now.

Beauty in the diverse details of our natural world defy strict classifications, they are always and every day changing. New forms come to new places, arriving there through a variety of ways and means. These forms can be driven into new places by drift of water, wind, sand, and any other means whereby they make a new landing for our eyes to land upon if we are sensitive to looking for them. Most walkers and sitters on the beaches are not expecting to see or find promising new designs and compositions that may be right in front or in back of their senses. Human senses are mostly atrophied to such a narrow viewpoint and angle that it takes something really big happening right in front of us to grab our immediate attention away from daydreaming or wondering what life has next for us. But there it is, life changing views along the beach awaiting your attention and appreciation if you choose to experience and encounter this newness of life. This new reality is there for you now, it may not be there in another minute, another hour, another day and so on. So you have to grab its details immediately, study them, suck them into your consciousness, and then find the joy of it all, a joy you experience but which you can also share if you wish to with words and images of your choice.

Some would say, what are you talking about?  These are the people you should stay away from. Or maybe you should clue them into this new reality that is separate from just what you can express about it in the moment of discovery. A lot of humanity has nothing left to discover because they expect nothing more than they know. I had a father like that, he never really expected to learn anything important to him after high school. How truly sad this attitude is. Life becomes nothing more than a daily dull routine and experiences of no expectations.

Wild Blue explorations is all about confronting that mindset of continuing dullness by beach explorations for discovering all the endless variety of changes life has to find joy in. The faces of creation are all about finding joy and goodness. These faces are smiling back too. So come find them with us, its all about sharing.

Seven Artistic Tips for Going to the Beach

WBE-Wild Blue Explorations invites you to join our online community of followers and participants at: www.wildblueexplorations.com as we develop new and unusual exploratory workshops and tours into hidden Great Lakes areas where the water meets the sky.  Places where your body, soul, and spirit can find peace and serenity as we lead you to inspirational locations for your artistic and creative endeavors. Though we are worldwide published environmental photographers, anyone with a burning passion to look at our awesome natural world in the details will want to surely join our small group  adventures. Here are  Seven Artistic Tips for Going to the Beach:

TIP #1: Go to the beach expecting to see some new things! Avoid mid-day wandering and looking out only at the waves.  Watch your feet and what is immediately around them!  Avoid anything that looks like it could bite you! Also, please avoid the tendency to step on bugs! Instead, be curious about what is there if you don't know. Take some notes, take some photos, draw some outlines, then look it up later online or in a field guide to whatever kind of life or nonlife it looks like. You might just learn something new and exciting enough to ask questions about, to find some answers about, something you should attempt to do everyday.

TIP #2: Go to the beach before sunrise and sunset!  You will greatly increase your artistic opportunities. You will learn to see the different tones of light on the landscape. Discipline your day schedule so you can do this. Make it a top priority to be there. Take notes or journal about what you see, what actions are going on beside the water's edge, making sure you remember tip #1!

TIP #3: Go to the beach with your artistic tools and instruments already prepared for action!  Make sure your cameras are charged up and you have extra batteries. This holds true if you want to wander around after dark, which also can be an exciting time.
Bring a flashlight, and if you have a companion along, which we highly recommend,  make sure they understand what you are attempting to do beforehand. Avoid taking along pets if you possibly can, their interruptions are too disrupting for your concentration on the artistic.

TIP #4: Go to the beach with high expectations for artistic creation. Go to the places along the beach that look like good hangouts.  A good piece of a long driftwood log  might seem like a good seat, but beware of hidden discomforts like biting ants,etc. Beware of poison ivy if you are allergic. It grows profusely along Great Lakes beaches beside sand trails to beaches and as vines up trees. You might want to avoid tree-hugging too.  Find places that look comfortable, where you can stay for a period of more than a couple minutes. Bringing along a lightweight seat might be a good thing to remember.

TIP #5: Go to the beach to enjoy using all of your senses! Do NOT smell what looks disgusting, as your appetite for artistic creation might just end there. But at the same time be willing to stick your nose into whatever seems interesting based on design and composition. Take along beverages to drink, take some time and come up with some new ideas based on what you see and experience with each new beach adventure. Make sure you record these creative ideas right away. Avoid procrastination always!

TIP #6: Go to the beach expecting that you may have to return there again on another day, in another season. Overcast and light rain can be exhilerating. Do not let the weather bother your burning need to find new subjects and think new thoughts.  Each new day on the beach is another opportunity to find creative treasures waiting just for you. Be happy hunting for them!

TIP #7:  Go to the beach last of all becauset it is the right thing to do with art first on your mind. Let all the other things in your life just drift away while you are occupied finding artistic treasures. After visiting one beach to your satisfaction, go hunt for another one in a different place. Boredom and loneliness will seldom be your guides if you stay occupied with the adventure of it all right in your pocket!

Bluet Damselfly Morning

90 degrees, still water, and muggy....

I slipped my kayak into the lake at 8am this 4th of July morning and headed for the wild, wooded side of Hidden lake.  Bluet Damselflies were dancing about in great numbers, covering exposed logs and the erect waterlily seed pods. The tricky part of photographing anything from a floating kayak, is that even though you may have your camera secured and still, the kayak seems still but is slowly drifting along, even on smooth as glass water.  Giving the camera a little boost in film speed and shutter speed is warranted.  Make sure your focusing grid and point of focus is really on your chosen subject, then increase the shutter speed or film speed.  I moved it up to 1/250th of a second and that took care of the tendency to blur any motion.  


Now if only there was a breeze!