Nature's Black Knight ~ Raptor of the Dead

Dark as a moonless night, this new world vulture . . .  nature's silent black knight Cathartes aura, emanates mystery, while evoking macabre images from the minds of many that view him. 

Turkey Vultures are truly remarkable diurnal creatures, preferring carrion to fresh meat and purifying our world as they dine. If you were to change the 'C' in its scientific name for a 'K' you would have the Greek derivative Kathartes meaning cleansing or purifier. Carthartes aura means purifying breeze. 

It is hard to imagine our world without Turkey Vultures or vultures of any kind.

I feel the intent, glaring stare upon me here, but do not fear for I know that these dark lords of the sky do not attack the living. Perhaps it is only a curious stare after all. 

Spring is a time of song but not for this magnificent being, who makes only sibilant sounds . . . a sibilance of hisses . . . air streams emerging from deep within. 

This Turkey Vulture is letting me know he or she is annoyed with my approaching too closely in the south field. The sinister sound is meant to frighten me away and the Turkey Vulture seems piqued by my persistence. 

They are known to grunt, cough, rattle and if really upset, vomit might spill down upon me. 

Singing is out, for they are not endowed with adequate vocal organs. 

Smelling is keen however, for unlike other raptors, vultures have super sophisticated olfactory organs. Note the rather large nostrils. 

A rapacious raptor . . . perhaps when feeding, but otherwise they get on quite well with one another and can migrate in flocks of up to a thousand individuals. Turkey Vulture roosts are sometimes as large as one hundred. 

What a sight that must be and to hear that many hisses at once . . . creepy yet thrilling.

Vulture comes from the latin vellere, to tear, and this princely bird of prey comes equipped with a sharp hooked ivory beak. 

I find it very impressive especially as it is not built to kill.

Misunderstood and even mistreated vultures are revered in some cultures where 'sky burials' are favored and vultures play a key role in their beliefs for releasing the spirit or soul of the dead. 

If hisses do not frighten you away . . . here is another way to let you know that I am big and fierce. 

This is a WOW experience. 

It must be a challenge to keeps ones balance with wings spread up to six feet. 

A first fauna encounter after being off the farm for a week and it being suggested that I do not use enough black and gray in my paintings. 

I have read that the TurkeyVulture is really more black-brown but being this close up it appears black enough to me. 

Never having encountered a perched Turkey vulture before, I feel very lucky to have eyed its large form in a young oak along the south field. 

Luckier still that the vulture allows me to approach so closely and take over three hundred photographs. 

Are you not frightened yet??

Oh Well. 

I will be off then . . . to heights you cannot but dream to reach!

Even though I speak kindly and with great admiration for the majestic grace of this Turkey Vulture, he finally spreads his wings for flight . . .  instead of fright . . . and soon was soaring out of sight. 

Vultures die when they eat the remains of poisoned critters. Yet another good reason to never . . .  ever use poisons. 

All vultures are actually aseptic animals and do not spread disease. 

I should love to have an immune system such as theirs . . . these cleaners of our dead keep our world safer and sweeter. 

Hellebores are poisonous but used to cure madness. 

Spring is a sweet time of year and buds are beginning to burst here at Flower Hill Farm. 

Dark apple trunks dancing in the mist . . . contrasting gray birch.

There is ever mystery in the process. 

The Turkey Vulture would not have been moved by flattery from a fox as was a fabled crow, but perhaps you might enjoy my latest installment to my bestiary over at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. 

Update: April 15, 2012
Another very valuable black/brown creature has returned to Flower Hill Farm . . . I sighted my first bat last night!! Finally the fungus that is killing our bats has been marked as the real killer and hopefully now a cure can be found . . . before it is too late. You can call congress and the white house and demand funding for this important research. I have called and I hope you will too. We do not want to have a world without bats.

Colors ~ Sunrise Sky 'Intuitive Palette' ~ Painting Workshop ~ Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. Our entire being is nourished by it. This mystic quality of color should likewise find expression in a work of art." 

Hans Hofmann

"My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light, in accordance with my deepest insight into the experience of life and nature." 

Hans Hofmann

"Colors must fit together as pieces in a puzzle or cogs in a wheel." Hans Hofmann

"Color is a plastic means of creating intervals . . . color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony."    Hans Hofmann

"Being inexhaustible, life and nature are a constant stimulus for a creative mind." Hans Hofmann

Beginning . . .  First day~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum 

It is not the form that dictates the color, but the color that brings out the form." Hans Hofmann

Still only a beginning ~ Second Day ~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"An idea can only be materialized with the help of a medium of expression, the inherent qualities of which must be surely sensed and understood in order to become the carrier of an idea." Hans Hofmann

Beginning . . . Third day ~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"When the impulses which stir us to profound emotion are integrated with the medium of expression, every interview of the soul may become art. This is contingent upon mastery of the medium." 

Hans Hofmann

"In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light." Hans Hofmann

Pieces of the sunrise sky ~ Left photo below

In March I had the great privilege of attending a painting workshop at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum taught by a former student of Hans Hofmann.
Robert Henry is a fabulous artist/painter/teacher whose relaxed and generous teaching style made the three day color workshop so rewarding.
I begin each day by stepping out of our cottage and standing on the dunes of North Truro bathed by the light and colors of the sunrise and ocean. Later, after lunch, I enter the museum painting studio and apply paint to canvas, while Bob shares his vast knowledge and interpretations of color. Three hours or so later I am feeling, thinking, seeing, sensing and cleaning color off my brushes . . . then back in nature with J. walking, exploring, dining and once again bathing in the vibrant colors of the sun as it vanishes beyond the ocean.
It had not occurred to me, until I began assembling this piece together, that the colors of the sunrise were intuitively chosen by me for the palette of my small paintings.
I have such a long journey to "master the medium". . .  though it is often a struggle, the process is ever enriching. 

Pieces of the sunrise sky ~ right photo above 

I published a post on the amazing Right whales off of Race Point Lighthouse over at Focusing On Wildlife. It was truly a spectacular event!

Meanwhile out in the gardens and sky here at Flower Hill Farm . . .

In keeping with our color theme . . . here is a glimpse of BLUE ~ a peek at a future posting.
The male and female bluebirds are busy guarding and building their nest.
The middle photo is the female and the far right is of the male. The female bluebird's head is not quite the intensity of blue found in the male bluebird. The greens and grays in the background enhance the colors intensity.
What would you call this blue? Cobalt, Ultramarine or Cerulean?
It does not come out of a tube for sure.
If you click on this photograph you can see the colors more vividly.

Hanging in a blue sky April's full moon is known as the Full Pink Moon (grass pink or ground phlox) or 'sprouting grass moon' . . . Native Americans along the coast call it Full Fish Moon, in honor of shad returning to streams to spawn. The first full moon of spring is also known as the Paschal Full Moon.
Passover or Easter . . . whichever you celebrate (or perhaps another ritual) . . . I hope it was a good time with family and friends.
May light fall through your prisms . . . may color inspire and warm your heart . . . may there be double rainbows after soaking storms.
I gladly dance beneath the moon for rain.
Peace.

Recalling Winter's White Surprise ~ Dreams of Pearly Petals

Winter white robin

absent pigments of color

feathers like petals

Time passing quickly

winter mild and not so white

dreams on milky clouds

A rare bird sighting

white gown among crabapples

wistful pearly blooms

 Magnolia stellata

fluttering snow-white petals

sweeten spring evenings

White pillow promise

plump peonies bush and tree

stippling a landscape

Snowball hydrangea 

light before white birch tree trunks

follow later on

A white time just past

April may bring new carpets

mist reflecting light

Petals and flights of birds

unfurl and arrive too soon

springs frosty freeze tease

A ghostly robin

albinism or leucism

perilous for life

It truly was a special February day, when I chanced to look out and see this beautiful bird harvesting apples with other robins. A rare sighting . . . but one in thirty-thousand . . . it is reported by Journey North. You can learn more about this phenomenon here. A white robin may be beautiful to observe but it is a danger to the robin, as it stands out in the flock and can be more easily preyed upon. 

Eyeing this white robin inspired me to dream of pearly white blooms. I did not realize then how soon many would unfurl.

The early summer heat, that pressed upon spring, melting snowdrops while tempting many magnolia blooms to cast off their protective calyx-armor, parted, as suddenly as it came and left us cold . . . dipping into temperatures of low 20's F. 

Everywhere one notes brownish tinges on early blooms within the trees. Here too, my today stellata wishes her portrait not to be seen so I share last years photos. 

A strange winter and beginning spring to go with this unique sighting of a white robin.

Our peonies are hardly even showing just now but there are many buds along with a sundry of stirrings through the delicate detritus that makes up the garden carpet. You will not find me out there digging or tidying anything up for awhile . . . just in case there are butterflies in process.
 The American woodcock is still enjoying the fields and open sky at dawn and dusk . . . I so enjoy trying to catch a glimpse of him and hearing his mating wing song.
Happiest of Aprils to All!