(One Flew Over the)
Week 6/26: Inspired by TV/Film
I have had a long time mystery solved by getting a photograph for this theme. Over the past few years, in the summer I have been hearing a sound a bit like water gurgling down a drain, coming from one of the large trees in front of our house. I even tried to record it so I could get someone to identify what was making the noise. I never was able to spot the bird or work out what it might be.
The other day while walking through the fields, over the snow which is now about 3 or 4 feet above the ground, I spotted this nest wedged neatly in the fork of this tree. I was photographing it as it looked so intricate, finely woven and yet somehow sturdy, and the film title "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" came to mind. The film had nothing to do with birds, of course. That didn't stop me from making that association and so when I came home and was working with it, I wondered if they even have cuckoos here. I got out my trusty iBird app ( +Fraser Brooks AKA Bigfoot) and searched for Cuckoos in my area and, sure enough, the black billed cuckoo is indeed found in Nova Scotia. I played the sound on the app and there it was ! The water gurgling down the drain sound! It was nothing like the cuckoo calls I knew from Europe, which is why I had not made the connection.
For those who don't know, cuckoos do not make their own nests, they lay their eggs in the nests of more industrious birds who then, all unaware of the invasion, raise the hatched cuckoo in with their own young. If the host bird is small the growing cuckoo will gradually push out all of the legitimate young from the nest and grow to its comparatively monster size at their expense, exhausting the confused parents while it does so. So every nest is a potential cuckoo's nest.
I went back a day later (after another snowfall and bout of windy weather) and the nest was gone. Just a bit of the bottom was left firmly attached to the base. Hopefully that will serve as a base to build a new one for the season soon to come. And maybe a cuckoo will lay an egg in it. It will be too high for me to be able to see it so well and hopefully to keep it safe from ground predators.
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#BWProject26 | Curated by +Tisha Montgomery +Brandon Luk +Lauri Novak +Alison Christensen
#hqspmonochrome +HQSP Monochrome curated by +Luis Vivanco S. +Оксана Крысюкова +Nader El Assy +Howard Salmon and +tri rini nuringtyas
#allthingsmonochrome +All Things Monochrome by +Charles Lupica +Enrique Pelaez +Brian Cox +Bill Wood +Dorian Stretton
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Another one I didn't get to see by doing the search for the project hashtag … 🙁
This is fabulous, +Ellie Kennard ! And the film is one of my favs 😉
Thanks a lot for this, +Ursula Klepper and you are quite right. There are benefits. But I am tired now of the snow. Enough is enough. I am so glad you like this. 😀
This is maybe one of the few benefits to be able to walk 3 or 4 feet above the ground, you can take photographs from stuff upp in the tree… :o) I love this image, the details and your processing!
Thanks a lot, +Lady Fran W Glad you like it.
Superb! Great find and shot for the theme.
Thank you very much +Jacqueline Hodsdon
+Lee B. Strickland He was great in this perfect for the role.
+J Foan it really was a classic and with brilliance in the acting. Great choice of actors for the roles, I agree.
+Alison Christensen thanks a lot, Alison
What a fabulous capture and love the black and white! Beautifully done! 🙂
Lee B. Strickland Yes it have a great cast. I loved the Indian that was so tall. He was in one of the Poltergeist movies.
One if my fav films……Loved Danny Devito and Jack Nicholson:)
Great shot as always +Ellie Kennard
+Steven J thanks again.
And yes, get your own out to share!
+Ellie Kennard. Ellie yes I thought was yours. You did a awesome job on it. And I as a bird lover appreciate you posting it. I need to get some of mine out.
Thank you very much, +janet wilding
+Lee B. Strickland
What a poignant story,, Lee. It was very powerful movie and I'm not surprised that it affected you so deeply, given your personal experience.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Lee. And for your compliment about the photograph.
+Terri Queen thank you Terri.
+Steven J thanks very much. (It was my photograph. :-))
Fabulous shot!
Lee B. Strickland Thank you for sharing. WE got to see 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' while we were in Sicily. We sat through it and were in the car for our usual afternoon ride and it hit me!!! I have never cried that much and that long ever before. I scared Tom and he pulled the car off the road and held me. I guess the story was so intense. Also I had a retarded brother that never talked. He would not have survived in a place like that. The Drs. always told us he would not make to adulthood. He passed away in 1993. 10 months after my mom. He was in his 50's. I know I won't see the movie again. Lovely bird's nest. Thank you for sharing, Ellie Kennard.
Excellent!
+Ruth Less. Awesome work!
Thanks very much +Ruth Less
Well done
Thanks +Tisha Montgomery
Great shot!
Even Mary Poppins would do, we were told and she is not too scary (most of the time). I wasn't going for scary although the movie was pretty impressive. Thanks +Janet Patterson
Not too scary, +Ellie Kennard but certainly fits the theme for today. Well done!
+Ellie Kennard
I do and it is a splendid
posting. Thank you for your
reply my friend :0)
+Andro Vampy thanks. I'm glad you like it.
+Bette Kauffman thank you very much, Bette.
I love that movie! Wonderful find!!
This is a great looking photograph :0)
Beautiful, +Ellie Kennard!
+Silvia ZK thanks very much, Silvia.
。☆★ Beautiful post ☆★ 。
+Magdalena Koziara thank you. It was a great film, I agree.
Great reference to great film!
I love it that you enjoy reading my stories, too, +Heiko Mahr – thanks very much, dear Heiko. I'm glad you like the photograph.
+Giselle Savoie that is a lovely thing to say. Thanks a lot, my friend.
+karisa masha thank you very much
What a great image and a wonderful post +Ellie Kennard I love to read your stories
Oh I love this, so clever, fantastic shot! 🙂
great……always i like and mis this wonderful……
Thanks a lot +Diana Boyd
Great take on this topic and info too!
+Joyce Fay and of course you recognised the reference to our friend Jeremy if you read my reply to Karen in the comment above. I have a lot to thank Jeremy for. 😉
Thanks Joyce. 😀
Thanks very much +Linda Jess – I am glad you found so much in it, just as I did.
How very interesting!
Well done Ellie. I like the texture on the bark as well as the weave in the nest. You have highlighted that very well.
+Liz C thanks a lot, Liz. There are some fascinating things that go on right under our noses, that we don't have any idea of. I'm learning more of them every day myself. Like the cuckoo noise. 🙂
+Annie Irving I'm glad you liked my rather unorthodox approach to it. Thanks.
+Sumit Sen thanks a lot, Sumit.
+Beena R I'm glad you enjoyed it and thank you!
+rashida Q thank you!
+Karen Cooper I'm glad you like it and found it interesting. I started my bird watching in Suffolk and initially attended an evening class that was instructed by Jeremy Sorenson, the then warden of Minsmere bird reserve. I was bitten by the bug and that was in the early 70's (+RSPB Minsmere) Jeremy and I and Steven subsequently became good friends. I learned a lot from him. It's wonderful that you have your dad to give you some help with identification and even better that you have a bird invasion of sorts around you. Sometimes I think that they are always there, but until we learn to look, we don't see the creatures around us.
Wow I had no idea. Wonderful image!
Wonderful story and such a nice take on the theme.
Lovely post!
Great post, beautiful story and photo 🙂
Lovely!
Fabulous picture – and I've learnt something too :0) For some glorious reason we're getting more and more birds in the trees on our street and even a few brave birds (or daft because of the cats next door) into our garden and I'm slowly learning to identify them by their call – aided too by a iPhone app or some bad bird imitations too my dad who just knows these things !
Thanks a lot, +Lauri Novak, I appreciate that.
Great idea! Love the detail!