Nature Study Outing :: Life and Death

I mentioned that we took a little hike along the coast on New Year's Day.  One wonderful thing about where we live is that there are wildflowers all year, of different sorts. These two were in bloom during our chilly outing:

And our daffodils are, right on schedule, pushing themselves up through the cold muddy ground out back.

It is so heartening to see these bits of life blooming even on cold, foggy mornings of winter.

But not all nature study is wildflowers and daffodils.  I hate to say it but dead birds have been a theme around here lately.  For whatever reason we have seen quite a few in the last few weeks!  

We have been lucky in that twice now those birds were new sights for our Life Lists, and also that each time they have still been wonderfully whole.

And now, sensitive readers, avert your eyes!

This Common Murre was washed up among the wrack:

It looks almost elegant, lying still there like that.  I have seem murres at the aquarium and afar on the rocks by the bay, but never up close on the beach.

My 5yo daughter, the daintiest little girl you'll ever meet, asked if I could "please take a picture because I want to nature journal it, Mommy--especially that black, black eye."  Okay then.

And on a similar note, my oldest daughter took these up-close-and-personal photos of another freshly-dead bird, this time at a local park, while I was busy at the other side of the playground with the babies.

The colors and the texture of the feathers are beautiful, aren't they?  She wasn't the slightest bit squeamish, and I didn't know until I browsed the photo roll that she had gotten so close.  A friend's older son chuckled when I finally noticed and said (rather proudly, I think), "Yep, she sure was right up next to him with that camera!"

Thanks to her careful photos, we were able to identify this poor guy as a Varied Thrush, which aren't super-common in our part of California.  (They come down from the northern coast during winter, but usually stop around San Francisco, so we're at the tail end of their migration area.)  We had never seen one, but I know we'll all remember his striking coloring now.

And wouldn't you know it, at this week's nature study outing, we found three (!) dead pigeons at different spots in our park.  I handed Gianna the camera again, and since they were all fascinated by the claws, she took a few close-ups.

It may not feel like it when I'm trying to make sure my toddler doesn't accidentally step on dead sea gulls (true story!), but it's a gift for my suburban children to experience the natural order of life and death in these simple weekly ventures out and about.

And as my son pointed out, it's a lot easier to identify a dead bird than a live one! ;)