Sunday, April 07, 2019

LIFE-DEATH -- ACTIONS-PERCEPTIONS


Through my youthful years between the plants, animals and people in my life I absorbed the reality for each that existence was a continuum of living for varying spans of time evolving ultimately into death.  This lifelong awareness of life/death as a given relationship has spared me some of the death angst expressed by others. 

At the point of dying the life force can be explained as changing into some other form of energy, but we humans haven’t really deciphered those specifics yet.   Science and religion each offer their perspectives while for some the two are plausibly integrated.    I’m reminded of this life continuum when events on both ends of the spectrum enter into my daily awareness with both extremes quite prominent presently, birth then death when a phone call conveys another’s departure from this earth.     

The advent of spring accentuates birth and rebirth, bringing much change here in Southern California with the abundance of rain we’ve received after our drought years.   Greenery and colorful flowers including our California poppy cover previously drab deserts and mountainsides, some that had been blackened from fire.   The poppy’s brilliance can be seen from creme, white to pink, yellow, orange, red and deep plum blooms. 


The mixed poppy seed package I planted has produced only a delicate crème and lemony yellow, plus bright orange blooms that have spread like a blanket covering my parkway – the area between the sidewalk and street that had been filled with bark to replace the water-thirsty grass.  I’ve read the California poppy contains chemicals that might cause relaxation and sleepiness, is also sometimes mixed with other herbs for medical treatments.         

New life in my community emerges again as a relatively new neighbor awaits the birth of their first newborn.  I also look forward to the next stage in our Big Bear Mountain Bald Eagle couple’s story awaiting the hatching of their two eggs.   Refer in the archives to my two immediately previous blog posts for the timeline from fertilization, to egg laying.

The two eggs are expected to hatch about April 10th – imminent this week! 

You can check for the latest developments at the Big Bear live camera focused on the nest 24/7:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2dUgK6VV4


My continued interest having been captured by these eagles, I discovered a few other facts I hadn’t known before.    I always knew the Bald Eagle was depicted as representing strength and officially our nation, but I didn’t know much else about the bird.   Incidentally, the founding fathers in the process of debating the birds selection had also considered the turkey which has since been given a unique characterization of its own – not exactly a bird visualized as soaring majestically over our country.   

Seems that maybe much like each of us and our country, we may not be quite like how we believe ourselves to be, or may represent ourselves, whether or not knowingly or intentionally.   I don’t know that the Bald Eagle has misrepresented itself to us, but we have projected on to the bird how we prefer to perceive it.  I think that happens with what we do with people in our lives sometimes, too. 

We can certainly say very different perceptions about the country’s leader prevail among our nation’s people, for example.   But questions people of any persuasion might want to consider:
 – has our leader misrepresented himself ?
 – have we projected on to him how we prefer to perceive him rather than recognizing the  person he is ?

Take the Bald Eagle we have characterized in such a way that we hold it in high esteem for example. But some have described the bird as being rather dirty, given to being lazy and attracted to landfill sites, carrion, or other less desirable foodstuffs and possibly capable of spreading disease by dropping trash in suburbs such as in Seattle, Washington as described recently in the New York Times.

Also, as I’ve already noted in my previous post with sound links, that the eagles voice has been judged to be weak, so another bird’s sound believed to sound fiercer is dubbed into movies and TV.

I read just briefly about some other eagle pairs who in the past have really botched their family responsibilities.   One instance, instead of alternating egg-sitting the parents-to-be would both be off the nest simultaneously.  The result was on more than one occasion another bird type, a raven, took an egg.   Later, the parents apparently not having learned the lesson were both off the nest again and another creature was able to take their remaining egg.   Were they inexperienced parents,  did they not care, or couldn't they figure out what happened?   Then there was the eagle pair where the male just didn’t return to his mate one day.   Did he simply abandon her or did he meet with some tragedy?  

Now that I’ve learned some of these shortcomings, I laud this Big Bear Bald Eagle pair as they seem to be ideal parents-to-be so far.   We do know Jackie laid only one egg last year that successfully hatched, but later the eaglet died.  Those monitoring the nest think she has returned again this year, but with a different mate they named Shadow.  We could only speculate as to what happened to the previous mate. 

Anytime I’ve ever looked in on the nest after the two eggs were laid, one or the other eagle has been covering the incubating eggs in some pretty cold sometimes wet, snowy, or windy weather through the stormy nights.  We're due still for some weather and temperature variations with periods of increased heat.

So, I await the eggs hatching with this projected date “about April 10th “.  The second egg was laid three days after the first so there may be some variance in eaglet arrival times.   Expect I’ll want to keep tabs on the eaglets until they actually leave the nest. 

I don’t project on to these Bald Eagles any greatness other than just what they are demonstrating.    I think my perception of this pair is that they are competent, reliable parents based on their actions to date. 

That really is what we have to rely on since actions most clearly define them just as is true among human beings.   We would be wise to consider actual actions as we form our perceptions of others including those with whom we make friends and those we choose as desirable nation leaders.


19 comments:

  1. Animal cameras are so interesting to watch. Before you know it, they've taken up half your morning. What a wonderful learning tool for scientists.

    Those poppy fields are sure beautiful. I can't believe I've gotten this old without knowing about those in California. I'm used to those in the mid-East where they use them to make opium.

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    1. I’ve just lucked out as I did a few minutes ago catching the Eagle in action since I never watch more than 3 or 4 minutes at most. The eagle stood up as if on cue when i clicked on the link — turned a bit, dug with beak in the bark moving the eggs, then settled down over them, squirming into a comfortable position.

      There are usually flower spreads every year though more sparse in drought years but because of all the rain the bloom is truly a super one. A large empty lot a few blocks from where I live is one mass of the orange poppies.

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  2. That's a wonderful poppy picture. Here we have a few poppies, but we have lots of wild daisy's and even more acreage of blue and yellow mustard. Love all the information about the eagles. Thank you.

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    1. I really like some of the other poppy colors and am disappointed my parkway mix hasn’t had any of the other colors, especially the pink. red and deep plum.

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  3. The poppies are truly gorgeous. Here in Texas, Wildseed Farms specializes in native plants, but not only Texas's natives. They also have fields of poppies, and sell their seed, too. Here's a link to a page with photos of some of their fields. I'm hoping to visit there later this month.

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    1. Spectacular! Really very large fields of various flowers. First time I’ve seen the red poppies. Thanks for the link. Hope you’re able to visit there and maybe take some photos.

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  4. How strange that the eagle-parents kept abandoning the nest and letting other birds take the eggs. You'd think they'd be extremely possessive of the eggs and keep a very close eye on them!

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    1. Who knows why they didn’t make certain the eggs were consistently kept warm which is necessary and both couldn’t be off at same time since they did return after the first egg taken according to what I read.

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  5. I am glad that the drought has ended and there is rain, finally. Enjoy the flowers and birds.

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  6. I've been reading about California's Superbloom. What a nice reward after so many years of drought!

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    1. Yes, amazing what a little water brings about.

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  7. The superbloom is amazing. And I love watching the eagles, we have a cam on a pair here on Signal Hill. And I was excited to see a pair of crows nesting on a tree outside my window. The comings and goings, I think about to hatch in the next few days. Can't see the next but they are very busy. I do love crows, they are so intelligent.

    I like your treatise on perception. Well said.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. You have an interesting bird variety to track. Thanks for noting my perception commentary.

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  8. No eglettes yet? We are all waaiting.

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    1. I haven’t spotted any eaglets yet, but don’t usually linger long on the site. I know from when we hatched chickens the predictability of when they actually emerged was iffy. The first egg was laid March 6th and “35 days or so” was said to be the incubation period which brings us to April 10th. It’s the “or so” time period we’re dealing with now, unless, of course, the egg(s) wasn’t fertilized by some fluke though we did see the birds engaged in copulating. Wonder if the parents-to-be are awaiting as anxiously as we are?

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  9. I suspect your commentary is right on - most people only know the bald eagle as the symbol of our country and I daresay the truth would (will) raise the ire of the faux patriots - but you have to admit - a bald eagle soaring through the sky just look majestic. The fact it is searching for a garbage dump for dinner cannot change that LOL.

    Loving the eagle saga...

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  10. Thank for you this cam it is so wonderful to watch!

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    1. Glad you’re enjoying the live cam as I am. The New Zealand site on the albatross has less immediate action but the view is spectacular. Reading the monthly timeline suggests more will occur in future months when the white fluffy ball we see now begins to get feathers and actually flies.

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