Camouflage...

I tried this week to get a decent picture of the mother hawk who is sitting on her nest close by our bridge. One can certainly see the nest in the photo, but I would have to point out that the bird appears as a furry knob to the left of the center of that bundle of twigs. We assume that it is the same mother as last year - that she has come back home. I guess she forgot how she actually ended up moving her babies after they hatched last year. The bridge can be a busy place in the spring.

In order to get a properly dramatic shot, I would need a telephoto lens - the nest is just far away enough to need that extra oomph for a close up. At least this way, she can still be somewhat camouflaged by the nest and the twigs, and soon the quickly growing leaves. Right now, there are still some good vantage points if you know where to look, but nature does a perpetually fine job of protecting its creatures from the menaces of the world.

I do find myself wishing for that sort of a hiding place sometimes. Part of the problem is that I have not taken a vacation in a while. There are all sorts of reasons for that - primarily the ones that say, "You can't afford to right now," which is true, but part of it also stems from the way my job is stuctured such that it's tricky to get away. There's no one elso to fill in for me. That's troublesome.

So...I wish I had a cozy nest somewhere off the beaten path, and a cloak of camouflage to pull on so that all I really had to worry about was sitting and being watchful for a while. And the world could just flow right on by like the bayou running high, carrying all of the flotsam and jetsam away.