British Columbia has an remarkably long list of provincial symbols. Its approved symbols include a mammal (a Spirit Bear—merely a cream-coated Black Bear), gemstone (Jade), tartan (BC), tree (Western Red Cedar), flower (Pacific Dogwood), and bird (Steller’s Jay).
It is unclear to me why anyone would feel a need for this multiplicity of contrivances. Should we expect entomologists to lobby for a provincial insect? Come on mycologists, how about a provincial fungus? Will ichthyologists sulk over having been neglected? Would meteorologists support the adoption of a provincial cloud? Sigh….
Nevertheless, we do have a Provincial Bird, and it is one that abounds—I see a number of then virtually every day of the year. Indeed, it is so common that I rarely point my camera in its direction anymore. The Steller’s Jay is a bird of western North America—essentially anywhere west of the Continental Divide. So, it is ours, and today, I tried another portrait.
That’s funny Alistair. Your rant loosens the supercilious – note the eyebrow – misanthrope in me.
But I’ve never seen a handsomer Steller’s Jay. What a precipitous peak is the crest.
Pamella, subtle—but I caught it.
Well that is a Steller photo .. another great one Alistair
Carl, paronomastic.
“A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.”
(Shaw)
Doug, what GBS wrote was correct—at least it was for 1901. We are now beyond silver iodide and into digital photography. Shaw (cable) now measures things in Mbps, so the insight might now be worded: A photographer is like a bitTorrant which encodes a terabyte of data in order that a mere kilobyte may be posted on social media.
Doug, I see you are using my own picture of a turkey (see turkeys) as your gravatar on my blog today. Now that’s rich.
Perfect background for a portrait.
My, my, all those big words…..nice bird.
Gail, fun with pictures, fun with words.