I will be the first to tell you that my vision is getting weak. What started as just needed reading glasses has now developed into a full-time spectacles wearing adventure. This aggravates me somewhat. I miss being able to see things as clearly as I once did. Weird thing is...prescription glasses do not help. Wearing cheap reading glasses constantly seems to have filled the need. I asked the doctor about this and she simply replied that it might be all in my head. Well, she has a point. My eyes are in my head and whatever helps them must be ok...prescription or not.
This morning, however, I noticed something. While my vision may be blurred at certain distances, miles and miles away, things seem mighty clear. Mr. PJ and I sat on the ground near a path heading to the back of the property. The old dog had decided this was a good resting spot so he and I took a few moments to relax. As the dog stared into the bushes at some unseen critter that was scratching about in the leaves, I stared upwards. I COULD SEE FOR MILES! Yep, just look upwards and marvel at your eyes' capabilities! Think about it for a moment. The treetops were clear. The clouds were clear. Planes passing overhead were clear. Things were clear with a $1 pair of reading glasses!
Speaking of treetops and clouds, have you ever thought just how many little fluffy wads of water droplets pass above us unnoticed every day? How many birds, planes, bugs, dust particles and other things zoom past us without our ever looking up to see them? I say when things get a bit foggy down at eye level, look up! Great things are up there as far as the eye can see! Sometimes our vision is not what we see but how we look at things.
Bad eyesight, broken spectacles and wildlife photography just do not go well together. I have a hard enough time seeing as it is but. as luck would have it, the lens popped out of my glasses today and. since then, things are just not right. My only choice was to reach for the reading glasses that I keep as a spare pair. I cannot see nearly as clearly but at least I could see enough to avoid stepping on a moccasin. Perhaps a good cleaning would have worked wonders but I was in a hurry to head back to the creek once again. Daily chores had eaten up most of the day and the sunlight was fast fading. I was in hopes of getting a few photographs of some of the Towhees that were nesting down under the palmettos before the sun set.
As I neared the spot that contained the nest, I saw another bird. This one, I did not recognize so I immediately stopped in my tracks and eased the camera into position. The bird froze. The shape seemed a bit off for any bird so small and of this hue but who am I to say. I know the local birds but perhaps this is still a migratory visitor to the Bayou. The bird was hunkered down beneath shrubbery so, after taking a few shots, I slowly sank to my knees. The bird did not budge an inch. Poor thing! It must be terrified of my presence. I took picture after picture. I had to identify this bird! Mental note...bird is small (about the size of a mockingbird), gray/green back, white throat, gray/green cap with a tuft of brown feathers as a crest, small eye. Ok, got it! Armed with that information and several dozen photographs, I should have no problem finding this bird in the reference books.
With the sun starting to slide down behind the pines and me being down in the creek, I knew it was time to head back up the hillside. There are too many critters that may not like my intrusion in their domain to linger much after dark. I stood. The bird stayed motionless. This was so strange. So strange, in fact, that I eased closer to see if the bird might be tangled in some way. Whoa! To my surprise, this was NOT a bird! In fact, I just spent a good half hour photographing a broken tree limb that was stuck in the ground. Ok...so it is time to get the regular glasses repaired.
Out of curiosity, I did a reverse image search on Google to just see what "they" thought the image was. Sure enough, "Best guess for this image: Bird"...I do not feel so bad now. If Google cannot get it right, how in the world am I supposed to identify it? So, there you have it! My bird for the day is none other than the lovely White-throated Gray Stick Bird! Nice find! Audubon would be proud!
