Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Sneak Attack

Nah. Just kidding. Roseate Spoonbills aren't aggressive with Double-crested Cormorants. I thought this juxtaposition was funny. Initially I thought this was a 'beauty & the beast" tableau, but as I look at the Spoonbill's - well, uh . . spoonbill, it really can't be called 'beautiful'. Why is the Cormorant any less aesthetically pleasing? What is beauty? Why do we care? Why do we try to record it - capture it? I don't suppose there are any answers. Just more questions. No matter, we are compelled - we persist.

5 comments:

dmmgmfm said...

That is a very cool picture. And I think that the Spoonbill is quite beautiful, as is the Cormorant. Thank you!

Anvilcloud said...

The Spoonbill is certainly impressive if nothing else. The Cormorant is ... probably attractive to other Cormorants.

KGMom said...

The instant I saw your posting on "Sneak Attack" my eye was drawn to the lovely shimmering pink of the roseate spoonbill. So, part of the answer to the "what is beauty" question is what the eye is drawn to. Not always, admittedly.
The question has certainly puzzled poets and pundits for centuries. I doubt we can answer it any better than Keats did in "Ode on a Grecian Urn": "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Anonymous said...

We've got cormorants here. They are always drying out their wings, looking like they are freeze-dried and thawing. Nice photo there, Cathy.

R.Theys-Troland54 said...

very nice photo