Caught Squawking - Red-winged Blackbird

 “You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.”

– John Ford

Red-winged Blackbird Perched on a Cattail

 “Days passing with discovery 

are the days of real happiness.” 

 ― Mehmet Murat Ildan

Red-winged Blackbird from a visit to a favorite pond.

Print Available - HERE 

Time is Flying By

 “I've noticed that as I get older, 

time seems to fly by in hyper-speed. 

You blink, and a week has passed - 

blink again, and a year has gone by.” 

― Elle Kennedy

Red-winged Blackbird flies by - 04-27-24 

Spring Song of the Red-winged Blackbird

 "All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls!" 

~Thomas Carlyle

Print Available - HERE 

Red-winged Blackbird - Wings in Flight

Print Available - HERE 

"Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail." 

~ Og Mandino

Red-winged Blackbird in Flight Over the Cattails

"Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - 

some good sweet empathic ping and swell. 

This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing 

I know: that the soul exists 

and is built entirely out of attentiveness." 

— Mary Oliver

Print Available - HERE 

Red-Winged Blackbird

"No winter lasts forever; 

no spring skips its turn." 

 ~ Hal Borland

Print Available - HERE 

The Sounds of Spring

What signals the arrival of Spring?  

Is it a date on the calendar?  The temperature outside?  

The flowers that we see popping up?

It may be all of these - but it is also the Sounds We Hear.

I know that Spring has arrived when I hear the

arrival of the Red-winged Blackbirds 

This guy was FAR away but
I got a decent shot with my 500mm lens.  
Hurray for long lenses! 

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. 

~ Hal Borland

I am linking to an AWESOME video of a 
Red-winged Blackbird
You will hear what I mean - a very distinctive call
click -  HERE 

Red-Winged Blackbird

But youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.

 - Oscar Wilde

Male Red-winged Blackbird.  Perhaps a youngster?

Quite a different look than the female - which you can see 

HERE

Female Red-winged Blackbird

I believe in the uncommon, the unusual and unlikely, even the miraculous. I believe in nearly all things except impossibilities. That I can't fathom. 

 - Richelle E. Goodrich  - Smile Anyway 

Having a Female Red-winged Blackbird show up at the feeder wreath is NOT a common occurrence.  It took me a while to ID her because she is so different from the male - which you can see - HERE 

Red on the Wing

Happiness comes through doors 
you didn't even know you left open. 

~ Unknown

Let Your Heart Soar

Red-winged blackbird

Refuse to be average.  
Let your heart soar as high as it will.

~A.W. Tozer

Red-winged Blackbird - On His Way

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination. 
~ Don Williams, Jr.

Poetry On His Wings

The world is full of Poetry—the air 
Is living with its spirit; and the waves 
Dance to the music of its melodies, 
And sparkle in its brightness. 
Earth is veiled, 
And mantled with its beauty; and the walls, 
That close the universe, with crystal, in, 
Are eloquent with voices, that proclaim 
The unseen glories of immensity... 
~ James G. Percival


~ 
As the sunset as His guide

He colored in the wings

of the Blackbird
~
my words 

A Variety

This is the same dragonfly from a previous  in-flight shot  At that time I thought it was a Calico pennant. Based on comments from readers I now believe it to be a Halloween pennant. 
 I think dragonfly wings are so unique!

This Male Red-winged Blackbird was very cooperative and perched where I could get a decent shot off. 

 One of the few birds I can ID without a problem :)  

Waxwing, Blackbird and Vulture

 .

Cedar Waxwing

Red-winged Blackbird

Black Vulture

There are as many ways of loving as there are people, and that wildflower variety is the great beauty of this dimension of existence.

 ― Rumi 

More of my Bird images - HERE 

Red-winged Blackbird

I saw this Red-winged Blackbird in a "marshy" area at the 
Izaak Walton Park in Christiansburg, Virginia

I like the way his tail fans out in this one :)

Nature is what we know,
yet have no art to say 
~ Emily Dickinson 

More of my Bird Images - HERE 

Red Wings At The Feeder

Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

 ― J.M. Barrie