Cemetery Birding

Hi everyone, just a quick update.  I've been on the road these past several days which has made it difficult to be on blogger.  I'm hoping to get caught up today.  Life has gotten in the way for the moment but I'll be back reading this week again.  Now for today's feature.....

Did you know that if you look for birding hotspots, you'll find them at cemeteries?!!  In the spirit of Halloween, Day of the Dead and All Souls Day, I decided to head to one popular EBIRD cemetery hotspot.

Birders bird everywhere apparently.  I mean, it wasn't a bad experience but I got caught up in the headstones and watching the people around graves sitting on lawn chairs.  It was relaxing and wonderfully quiet.

And indeed full of birds as promised.  Right now the Privet trees are producing berries that hundreds of House Finches are enjoying around the grounds.  There was a Kestrel, an unknown hawk, MoDo's(Mourning Doves because they're sad), a Verdin, and several other birds that I couldn't make out.  In other words, the Usual Suspects(as the birder term goes) were all there.

And the sunlight was lovely.  Even better was that I was able to get out and do some birding before the sunset.

The problem though for me was concentrating because I was fascinated by the human need for statues, flowers, religious symbols, etc.  I don't believe in any of it(for me, it's all about the good kharma:) but I still find it interesting. The cemetery is a great place for reflection and it was very calming.

I went into deep thought mode.....like super deep thought mode when I began reading headstones.  The recent ones were full of flowers, candles, and decorations while the old old ones(from the 1800's) sat barren of anything.  Essentially forgotten.

But this headstone tugged at my heart strings.  Recently, someone's mother just passed away and I thought about how beautiful it was that they put all this effort into seasonal decor.  I think their Mother would be proud.

And then there was another that made me tear up.  A special needs child had just passed away and a wonderful, simple poem had been written to remember the positive spirit of this child. And I thought of my blogger/friends with Special Needs children and the emotion that goes into raising a child which comes with extreme ups and downs. I worked nearly 15 years with this group before I began blogging.  So as for birding at a cemetery......well, I don't think I could do it well with all the distractions of the spirit and living around me.  There's another challenge for me coming that deals with garbage dumps.  But I'll wait to do that until I can stomache the smell.  Maybe it would be better having a friend like Kathie along.  I'm sure that would be quite the post.  So for now, I leave you with this "shadow of the spirits" shot.