Some of my favorite images created in 2024 – Happy New Year
Happy New Year Some of my favorite images created in 2024. ~ Image collection, Happy New Year © Jerry L. Ferrara
SHOT FROM THE FILE
Red-breasted Nuthatch – Hoarders, Losers and Winners
Hoarders, Losers and Winners For years now, we’ve been watching the bird feeders from our back porch. The energy displayed by the participants has been and is huge, especially demonstrated by the chickadees and nuthatches. They’re here at a feeder one moment grabbing an offering and gone in an instant only to return way too soon to have feasted. Perhaps they are storing for a ‘rainy day’? But where? Mystery solved. I finally caught one of the little stinkers [Red-breasted Nuthatch] in the act of pilfering and storing a peanut in the fungal folds of a lichen. Through the brambles and the brushThere always seems to be a rushWith a peanut firm in towOff to store it I will goSome will say I hoard ‘enough’But losers they when times are tough ~ Anecdote, poem and Red-breasted Nuthatch capture, Hoarders, Losers and Winners © Jerry L. Ferrara
American Alligator – Only A Fool
Only A Fool Only a fool will go near the poolwhere there waits a dark, lurking monster.Fourteen feet long, bearing jaws steely strongcould very well end in disaster. ~ Poem and American Alligator capture, Only A Fool © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – From An Alabaster Throne [Wintertide]
From An Alabaster Throne [Wintertide] In the wondrous quietude of a tender wintertide storm, a magnificent spirit surveys its serene surroundings from an alabaster throne. While making this image, the thing I recall most is not the visual experience. It was the auditory state that was most compelling, or more accurately, lack thereof. The impact of total silence married to the Eagle’s presence was breathtakingly beautiful. MERRY CHRISTMAS! ~ Anecdote and Bald Eagle capture, From An Alabaster Throne [Wintertide] © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – Perfection’s Never Bought
Perfection’s Never Bought To make a score requires morethan aptitude and skill.A master knows, results will showfrom practice and great will.To dance the sky as eagles plyand snare a fish on wing,demonstrates what practice makes:rehearse is everything.Yet when a feat becomes completeand done without a thought,a master’s guess is not to rest,perfection’s never bought. ~ Poem and Bald Eagle capture, Perfection’s Never Bought © Jerry L. Ferrara, from the book, Wild North Idaho: Season of the Eagle
Bald Eagle – The Counterpoint To A Faceless Storm
The Counterpoint To A Faceless Storm Standing in one spot waiting for a photo opportunity is one thing. Standing in a snow storm where at times visibility is questionable is another. When this magnificent creature emanated from the murky scape, its outline was vaguely defined. Was it real or a figment? Then the falling snow lightened. What came out of the storm was a creature on passage. In the fury of the stormLittle seems of solid formJust a sea of shapeless whiteBlowing left and flowing rightWhirls and whips the aerial seaA tumult in realitySlowly, though, a form takes shapeWithin the hoary-mantled drapeA feathered beast of royal formThe counterpoint to a faceless storm ~ Anecdote, poem and Bald Eagle capture, The Counterpoint To A Faceless Storm © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – The Line of Symmetry
The Line of Symmetry Many times the Bald Eagles fished far out from shore. Often it was disappointingly at too great a distance. Even with big glass the subjects and the visual tale were too small in the frame. Day after day I worked from first light to dusk capturing sequences of the birds hunting the water’s face. Most of the images were discarded. Then luck dawned, circumstances changed and persistence proved the key to success. The light was breathtaking that morning. The water’s tranquil surface seemed a visual echo. I had an uncanny sense something magical was about to happen especially with a subject at the right distance. Suddenly a mighty snow-capped creature swiftly swept in and deftly descended toward its weary and spent prey. No time for thought as I framed, followed and fired away. What was born in the camera was this capture of the eagle with fish in talons, the splash and the reflection. To my surprise both reality and the mirror image were separated by the line of symmetry. ~ Anecdote and Bald Eagle capture, The Line of Symmetry © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – A Burst Of Glory
A Burst Of Glory The speed of the undertaking was nothing less than meteoric as the feathered creature plummeted from the open sky toward a languishing, scaly target fixed isolated on the lake’s somber veneer. At death’s door, with its spawning role complete, the Kokanee Salmon held little life in its weary, spent body … for it, passing on would be a blessing. And so it was as the Bald Eagle’s steely talons hit the water’s surface with a violent force, grasping the dying fish and sending a mountain of moisture into the air. As the mighty predator’s momentum carried it forward, it surged heavenward on grandiose outstretched wings. What trailed behind was a burst of glory. From far above a sky-bound beast so rockets swiftly to the feast. As talons break the waterline they seize the flesh that’s gone supine. The eagle clutches matter gory but leaves behind a burst of glory. ~ Anecdote, poem and Bald Eagle capture, A Burst of Glory © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – Dark Intruder
Dark Intruder Dark Intruder in the skyPower through while feathers plyAre you on a treach’rous search?Absent from your lofty perchSome below are not awareThat danger lurks but in the air … and one of Nature’s apex predators, the Bald Eagle, goes in search of a salmon meal. ~ Poem and Bald Eagle capture, Dark Intruder © Jerry L. Ferrara
Bald Eagle – Outspread
Outspread Outspread wings invite the air. Drag and lift do battle there. When feathers sing in harmony, the creature swims the sky so free. At the moment when it’s best, it spreads its plumes and comes to rest. ~ Poem and Bald Eagle capture, Outspread © Jerry L. Ferrara from the book, Wild North Idaho: Season of the Eagle