Last-Ditch Attempts, Intermission

"The Birds I Missed."  As I was going over my photos to prepare Part 2 of the story I began yesterday, I realized there were exciting sightings I failed to photograph.  They deserve mention here.  As I was headed for the first ditch,  a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk flew across the road in front of me, coming in for a landing in a field to my left.  The sun had just risen on my right,  so the light fell on the hawk's tail in a way that made it glow.  The hawk appeared to have pounced on a mouse some hundred feet away then quickly took off looking a little heavier.  It was a dramatic scene I won't soon forget, but there was no way I could have stopped my car and got a photo quickly enough.  

Then, after photographing the Madia toward the end of Quincy Junction Road, I turned left onto Chandler Road and headed toward the second ditch on my itinerary.  Within a few yards, I spotted an Acorn Woodpecker on a fence post, then a White-headed Woodpecker on the very next post.  The sound of my engine decelerating was enough to scare both of them off.  A few minutes later, as I entered Highway 70 to head back toward Quincy, I came upon a group of Ravens feasting on a dead squirrel in the middle of the road.  They took off before I could come to a full stop.  After taking pictures by the ditch before the FRC turnoff, I entered Golden Eagle Freeway (AKA Golden Eagle Drive) I saw Ospreys circling over the ponds by the fish hatchery.  I knew if I sat still near the ponds for a while there would be many opportunities to photograph Ospreys, but I was running out of time and needed to explore the third and last ditch which was the inspiration for this whole story.  As I pulled into the parking lot, the Red-Breasted Sapsucker was again on the tree where I've seen him most mornings for the past several weeks.  No sooner had I turned of my engine when he took off.

I wonder how durable these memories will be.  For that matter, I wonder how durable this blog will be.  It's all electrons now, and who knows how long Google will be around.  If I printed many of my photos, how long would they last?  It's interesting that makers of photo papers and inks can announce that a given photo should last say 200 years when photography isn't even that old.  In any case, none of these methods of storing memories can compare to the life span of the cave paintings in Lasceaux, or the length of time the Odyssey preserved by oral tradition before being written down.  

You can help me create a meme.  Just memorize a blog post that you like, teach it to your kids and admonish them to tell that story often enough that they'll remember it when they have kids.  Maybe we can keep it going for hundreds of years.  It might even outlast the species of birds I mentioned.