I’ve been watching these guys for the past week or so. I’ve been carrying my camera with me and after work today, I went outside and heard their call. Out came my camera, but most of them had migrated across the street. I thought that if I was going to get any images, sitting where I was wouldn’t get it done. I jumped in my car and crossed the ‘Highway of Death’, otherwise known as E. Pine Log Road. Amazingly, there was a hole in the traffic and I crossed relatively painlessly.

For about ten minutes, maybe a few more, I held my camera at the ready, seeing the birds leave the trees to swarm as they’ve done, and then to return. With 300+ photos, I’m sure I’ll find a few favorites, but this grabbed me because of the enormity of the swarm.

Simple reminders of the resilience of nature.

“I’s been livin’ a long time in yesterday, Sandy chile, an’ I knows there ain’t no room in de world fo’ nothin’ mo’n love. I know, chile! Ever’thing there is but lovin’ leaves a rust on yo’ soul. An’ to love sho ‘nough, you got to have a spot in yo’ heart fo’ ever’body – great an’ small, white an’ black, an’ them what’s good an’ them what’s evil – ‘cause love ain’t got no crowded-out places where de good ones stay an’ de bad ones can’t come in. When it gets that way, then it ain’t love.”
― Langston Hughes, Not Without Laughter

Okefenokee NWR – Images from years paddling across those trembling waters.