Room on the Island

Lens-Artists Challenge #414: Looking Back at #44–Harmony

This week Ann-Christine revisits the Lens-Artists Challenge #44: Harmony. She’s given us more freedom to explore harmony beyond the color-harmony concept. Please see her post and photos for her take on the topic.

When I think of harmony, one song always comes to mind: “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic. Jackie DeShannon carried it into the Top 10 in 1965. Dionne Warwick initially turned it down, reportedly finding it a bit preachy, but she recorded it herself the following year. Sixty years on, the world still seems short on what the song asks for. Rather than dwell on that, I go to nature to see how the birds handle the question of harmony.

About 30 minutes from our house is Murphy Park in Taylor, Texas. It is a small urban park, roughly 120 acres (49 ha), with a man-made lake and a modest island in the middle. Every spring, that island becomes one of Central Texas’s busiest rookeries.

Herons, egrets, and cormorants arrive to nest, and the traffic on the island goes off the charts. The overflow spills into the trees along the shore. For a bird photographer, it is close to paradise: you find a shaded spot, sit down, and shoot away while the birds go about their business.

What strikes me most is how well everyone gets along in such tight quarters. Different species, different sizes, different habits, all packed onto a few acres of reeds and branches, are living in harmony.

On the lawn, a pair of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and a Great Egret share the same patch of grass without a second glance.

In the reeds, a Little Blue Heron preens beside two Cattle Egrets in full breeding color. Neighbors, not rivals.

Up in a bald cypress by the water, Great Egrets and Neotropic Cormorants nest side by side, sometimes only a branch apart.

It happens at home, too. At one of the bird feeders, a House Finch and a Northern Cardinal take turns, and nobody gets chased off.

I have no solution for why we humans find it so hard to share space. Ecologists would tell me the birds have simply worked out their differences: each species feeds a little differently, so there is enough to go around. Maybe that is the whole lesson. There is room on the island for everyone, as long as no one insists on having it all.

What a show Beth’s bridge challenge generated last week. Great images you all shared! I hope you will join this challenge, too. Please don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag in your posts so people can find your wonderful challenge entries.

Next week, Anne will feature a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in then to find out more about the challenge. Please see this page for more information about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history. If you don’t want to miss any future challenges, please consider subscribing to the team members’ websites. Here they are:

• Tina of Travels and Trifles.
• Patti of P.A. Moed.
• Ann-Christine of Leya.
• John of Journeys with Johnbo.
• Anne of Slow Shutter Speed.
• Sofia of Photographias.
• Egídio of Through Brazilian Eyes.
• Ritva of Ritva Sillanmäki Photography.
• Beth of Wandering Dawgs.

That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Black-Bellied Whistling Duck, Great Egret, House Finch, Lens-Artists, Little Blue Heron, Murphy Park, Neotropic Cormorant, Northern Cardinal, Parks, Teravista, Texas, Western Cattle Egret, and Wildlife. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.

Sources:

• City of Taylor — Murphy Park — https://www.taylortx.gov/243/Murphy-Park
• Texas Master Naturalist, Central Places — Murphy Park, Taylor — https://txmn.org/centralplaces/murphy-park-taylor/
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds — Neotropic Cormorant — https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Neotropic_Cormorant/overview
• Wikipedia — What the World Needs Now Is Love — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_World_Needs_Now_Is_Love