"This Bud's For You..."

Kinda weird looking things up close, buds...lots of potential energy awaiting the proper hours of sunlight and appropriate temperatures that will trigger the miracle of life in new plant growth. Scales (modified leaves) are protecting the embryonic leaves that will lay dormant for now...and you can even see a few scar marks from prior growth in recent years. Nice to get the branch to hold still for a plink with my little Canon S2 as the NW winds were already in a frenzy from Thursday's cold front.

And so we were out on our usual woods between a local YMCA and the beltway...just wandering through the trail-less forest and scrub area, with muffled traffic droning nearby...Mercy chasing a field mouse for a split second before losing sight of and interest in it...I looking for the Red-Tail Hawks but not seeing them today...just slowly meandering on our circuitous route under the cerulean sky that was becoming increasingly chilly.

When I first heard the sound I could only tell the direction from whence it came, but nothing of what it was...I know that 3/4 of a mile away there is a large field area that is slated for (another) development, though I had seen nothing more than survey marker ribbons and their alien colors waving erratically from time to time...as I listened, it slowly got a little louder...louder yet...

There was a point it sounded like the distant screeching, squeeking, clanking sounds made by treaded earth-moving machines like bulldozers...or tanks (childhood movie memories, what can I say...) It only took a minute to realize it was nothing of the sort as the sound quickly increased in volume and scope...

(CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE)

We must have been hidden along the tree line with the scrub area as thousands of blackbirds came just over the tops of the trees flying, wheeling, flitting, landing, flitting, flying, wheeling, creating quite the din. Apparently they were a bit surprised to see us, as well, quickly scattering and returning to the trees.

Even Mercy didn't know what to make of the cacophanus cackles and flying feathers. I had only a moment to fire off a few shots and cross my fingers that they would be good enough to use. Got a little lucky, I guess.

In very short order, they were gone. The air quickly fell silent except for the droning traffic. We soon exited the woods onto the playing fields...I looked and scanned in all directions, but could neither see nor hear them. It lasted such a brief time, yet it was kind of magical just being in the midst of such vibrance, if but for a brief moment. In case you were wondering, no, Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" never crossed my mind until hours later...

---------------

But do you think the story stops there? Does anything I write stop anywhere? Once home, my mind was thinking of creative things I could write about and say...my Mom would always say "money, money, money!" when she would see such a massing, something she learned as a kid in Oklahoma...supposed to bring you money when you do it...(sorry, Mom, didn't work)...and I had thought of using something like "4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie...plus a few extra thousand..." So I did a quick websearch to bone up on old nursery rhymes, and came across the one I needed: "Sing A Song Of Sixpence"...

I don't mean to burst your bubble here (mine was burst first, if that makes you feel any better), but that little innocent children's ditty was actually an encoded message in verse for Blackbeard's legions to sign up fellow plunderers...I kid you not. I will let you read all about it when you have the time...just click on the classic pirate vocalization to go to it: "Aaarrrrghh!"

NOW GET BACK TO WORK, YA SCURVY-DOGS!!!