Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Suburban Ents

I see faces in lots of odd places. The tail lights of the car in front of me always look like some strange face. Since I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings (again) I am very aware of the trees we walk through. This is a suburban Ent, living incognito in a neighbor's yard. Non-believers think it's just a tree that has been pruned several times. I know better. I'm sure Swampy of Swamp Things recognizes this guy too, since she is married to Tree Beard, a most famous Ent!

Of course, Kentucky is nothing like Middle Earth, and I suspect that this Ent has become very "tree-ish" as Tree Beard would say. They don't walk or talk much any more. The look of surprise on his face may reflect the damage overall from the ice storm. He seems to be saying, "Oh, oh, oh my goodness!" These photos from nearby Deam Lake in Indiana show the cleanup still in progress. As we birded there on Sunday, we noticed that the number of species were down quite a bit. We found some beautiful Pine Warblers, and the Phoebe's followed us around announcing their presence all morning. We did not find many wrens, sparrows, towhees, or other birds we saw last year, and wondered if it was because of the destruction and noisy cleanup.

I hope all the other little guys will settle back in.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic shot of the Warbler! The trees here have had a severe hair cut from the ice this winter too.