Are parakeets less preppy than falcons and does it really matter...?
Just the other day I glimpsed two birds that made me pause n' ponder about whether some birds are simply just more elegant and distinct than others in a style/lifestyle methodology.
Hmm... IS something like a Snowy White Egret a bit more shall we say "preppy" than a Pelican?
Are Falcons then as well more preppy than say Hawks or, shudder, Vultures?
Out here in the coastal lowcountry, we are graced with quite a few really neat birds: from our cheerful resident yard-birds such as the bluebirds that utilize the bird houses we have up in the yard here and the cardinals who have a nest deep inside our lemon tree to the various egrets and herons who love the marsh grasses just off of our yard's perimeter. Once when out walking, I espied a tree full of Ibis who took flight as my dog came around the dirt road's bend; their white brightness interrupted by the black bands underneath their wings pulsing with each wing beat. Stunningly beautiful as well was the Great Blue Heron that seemed quite prehistoric as its long dark shadow blotted out the sun when it flew overhead during another one of my island jaunts several years ago. I learned later that the Gullah people call this bird "Job", as in the long-suffering Job of the Bible. After that, I wrote a poem about the bird which I'll share here:
Ode to Job
Job came down/in a/whoosh, outstretched/and gliding into the horizon;/ blueshadowed/flight/arrested by/the beckoning marsh./ His greatness bears/much/yet not/the anguish of ancient/woes. Situated grievances weigh/feathery/on this long,/strong back. Unconscious/emotion/numbs while/time drifts out/another/sun salted/day.
(sorry about the line-endings "/" where normally there'd be a new line starting underneath the previous one but I haven't figured-out completely how this blog formats spacing within the text's body. Some times it gets my posts' paragraphs right and sometimes not, oh well)
Birds such as ibis, egrets and herons just seem a lot more artistically aesthetic than pestering seagulls and clunky pelicans or even the busy, ever scampering and scattering across the beach cute little groups of sanderlings. Likewise, Falcons and Eagles connote more distinction than Vultures with perhaps Hawks being sort of an in between. And as much as Martha Stewart has tried to bring class, er couture, to having a side yard of chickens, "ah, joli poulet, oui?" well, the verdict's still out on that particular stylizing, hmm. To be honest, Martha Stewart's ever-striving working and posturing towards elegance and appropriateness actually works constantly against her desire to be thought of as a true Preppy; preppies aren't "made", they rather just, "are born to"... but anyway, back to birds.
The Official Preppy Handbook has a section within in its chapters about preppy dog breeds but birds aren't bothered with at all and maybe that's because they aren't really easily-categorized into Prep or non-Prep purposing. However, when anyone is inside a traditional preppy house, one can espy a bird image or two usually around whether it's in the splashy toile' print of a loveseat tucked in the sunroom, as a framed watercolor hanging in the study or within the patterning of the bone china plates being put to use out on a diningroom's sideboard. When I started looking around our own house here, I found a plethora of bird images. I knew we had some bird-imagery around decor-wise along with our very lively two pet birds, Beau and Brummel, but wow, oh indeed, yes, we DO have a bit of a bird theme going on here. Inside and out, it's quite bird-motif'd out here within this small corner of our island.
I'll end this mulling-about-birds with a description of the picture above which was taken when Beau and Brummel decided to go on a jaunt around our house one evening and ended up perching atop our diningroom's china cabnit for quite awhile. They have a daily-run out within our river porch's screened room but find it a riot to dart out of their cage and roam around inside the rest of the house every so often. I'm not sure if I'd consider, or classify, parakeets as particularly "preppy" but they sure have been a lot of cheer to have here within our household.
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