Flying Creatures

Flying Creatures

Have you ever noticed that more often we see the birds around us – and all of them are beautiful and wonderful by definition – the more they become invisible to us. We take for granted the beauty of our planet and because we see birds so often, we see them less and less. By my photographs of birds I try to express certain things that happen in this reincarnation of my soul in this world, I mean, good part of it and the part I’m not happy with, the sad part.

In England, United Kingdom, the word birds can signify something else than the meaning here, namely the warm-blooded vertebrates with feathers, like the flamingo species. Ornithology is the science that studies these animals. Perhaps their most striking feature – their ability to fly – rests on them having hollow bones and a rumored incapacity to get fat.

Birds are predominant in mythology and symbolism, such at the white dove signifying peace. Similarly, many mythical creatures are winged, often formed by morphing eagles’, bats’ and other animals’ representations. In fantasy and Medieval literature, winged dragons are curiously reminiscent of dinosaurs, with a mix of pterosaurs or pterodactyls, likewise winged, but reptilian in nature. Griffins have an eagle’s head and a lion’s body. Felines have similarly been a favored subject of mythology, with the Sphinx a remnant of Ancient times with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, the ruins still seen in contemporary Egypt. Crows and ravens are most likely associated with Gothic literature. Horror films have also showcased birds, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around (Thomas A. Edison, a great American inventor)

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known (Oscar Wilde, a British playwright and writer)

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train (Oscar Wilde)

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect (Oscar Wilde, that great writer and playwrite)

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it (Oscar Wilde)

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter (Oscar Wilde)

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about (Oscar Wilde)

Everybody knows that success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result (Oscar Wilde)

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious (Oscar Wilde)

Illusion is the first of all pleasures (Oscar Wilde)

We use morality against people whom we dislike (Oscar Wilde)

Who, being loved, is poor? (Oscar Wilde)

Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us (Oscar Wilde)

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally (Oscar Wilde)

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible (Oscar Wilde)

In our lives, truth is rarely pure and never simple (Oscar Wilde, a Brithis playwrite)

In your soul are precious things that cannot be taken from you (Oscar Wilde)

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live (Oscar Wilde)

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation (Oscar Wilde)

Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution (Unknown philosopher of our times)

Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Einstein)

Love is more important than imagination. (Megan Jorgensen)

Knowledge is more important than love. (Megan Jorgensen)

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn (Dalai Lama)

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden whenflowers are dead (Oscar Wilde)

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars (Oscar Wilde, a British author)

I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying (Oscar Wilde)

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing; now that I am old I know that (Oscar Wilde)

Why do they call Ladybug - Ladybug. And if a ladybug is male, what happens? (Megan Jorgensen)

A very young pigeon on our balcony.

There were two of them, we miss them

A nice and curious bird in a Toronto park

A lonely pigeon

Loonies in Toronto's High Park

Two loonies in the High Park

Nice and brave loones in the High Park lake in Toronto city

Don't knowy how to explain, but I like loonies.

There is something magic in loonies taking a slow swim.

A Gothic loonie reflecting on the life and galaxie...

A Monarch batterfly, picture taken in Toronto's down-town

Ms. and Mr. Penguin. Artwork by Elena

A small, but brave bird in Jean-Drapeau Park of Montreal

A proud Canadian Albatros (or may be not an albatros)

A blue pigeons looking for a friend

The winter is coming. It's cold and chilly

Even pigeons suffer when the winter around the corner

Where do the pigeons spend the winter?

This piegeon learns to read, no doubt about his intentions

A bird's sculpture in Pyerson University's Campus

Young and curious pigeons researching the world

Bird's dreams. Do the birds dream?

Do the birds play chess? I do, I like playing chess.

Pigeons in Toronto are everywhere, on every balcony

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds, but many other things. (Aesop)

I feel I am strange to all but the birds of America. (John James Audubon)

When birds burp, it must taste like bugs or something (Bill Watterson)

There's an incredible mythical unseen force which lets birds know when you've just washed your car. (Denis Norden)

The most ordinary conditions for observing sailing birds are then the wind and sea are both aft. (Lawrence Hargrave)

People see me and they start to squeal like tropical birds or seals stranded on the beach. (Carrie Fisher)

I'm not into the unrealistic realm of magic realism where birds talk. (Vikas Swarup)

The clear evidence is overwhelming that birds are dinosaurs. (Robert T. Bakker)

I love Cadillacs, but I very rarely name them after birds. (Betty White)

It's very likely that most mammals have consciousness, and probably birds, too. (Richard Dawkins)

Birds, especially canaries, are super sensitive to hydrogen sulfide and sour gas. (David Suzuki)

Self-help books are for the birds. Self-help groups are where it is at. (Janice Dickinson)

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries. (John Masefield)

When you have clay in your hands, it's hard to avoid making birds. (Eva Zeisel)