I kind of dared myself to post this image and now I’m calling my own bluff. And of course the perch is more correctly called a bison chip than a buffalo chip but somehow that just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
I photographed this meadowlark a week ago on Antelope Island as it looked for food in the new grasses. Every few seconds it would break out into song and then go back to foraging. When it perched on this old dried-up buffalo chip I couldn’t resist firing away and those photos have grown on me every time I look at them. I know from posting photos of Horned Larks on buffalo chips in the past that dung in my images has little appeal for many viewers but for me there’s more to this photo than just the aesthetics (or lack thereof…) of the image.
Think about it. For millennia this would have been an extremely common sight on the North American Plains. If you can, go back in your mind to about 5,000 years ago. It’s a springtime morning somewhere on the plains and the rolling hills are covered with grasses and wildflowers. Birds are singing and there’s thousands of bison (buffalo) peacefully grazing the hills in every direction to the horizon. One of the most common birds would be the Western Meadowlark and as is their penchant many of them would regularly perch atop buffalo chips and sing their little hearts out.
Now, think about how many living humans have ever seen a meadowlark on a buffalo chip – very, very few. To me it’s a privilege to view such a primordial sight – it’s almost romantic in a way (as in an idealized view of the past). I realize that taste is a personal thing and I likely have convinced very few of the appeal of an image like this but I had to present my point of view.
One more thing. Viewers likely instantly noticed the unconventional composition of this image with the bird further to the left than I would normally place it but I wanted to include as much of the chip as possible.
So here’s another more traditional composition for those who prefer more bird and less poop in their images…
Ron
PS – Soon after I posted this link to Facebook Muffy S. Gately made the following comment on FB. I enjoyed it enough to include it here. Thanks, Muffy.
“Ron, I suspect that growing up on a farm made you more poop tolerant, and I am guessing that all moms are pretty poop tolerant, too. Sh*t happens.”
In the context of great minds and all, the historical perspective also flashed through my mind and boggled it at the thought. Yes, I’m easily boggled, but I’ve always loved the Great Plains and its history and mourned the loss of the great bison herds and the Native Americans who survived on their abundance. It’s really a natural progression since I immerse myself in Native American history, literature, birds, birdsong and other critters.
I’m also not fussed with the pile of poop. I’m a little weird in that I’ve always found barnyard smells delightful and often oddly comforting. We all poop–get over it! There’s also the issue of how useful buffalo chips are. They were burned for fuel to keep folks warm throughout the winter. And of course, they draw meadowlarks whose song is magnificent. Poop is good! 🙂
Ron,
What the crap?! Great shot.
Stephen
As far as ‘natural’ perches go, you can’t get much better than that.
And yes, whatever it is called sh*t happens. And we rarely get charming songsters to sweeten the deal.
Loved your last sentence in this situation, EC. Thanks.
Love the shots! Can’t be very creative today, too many discouraging things going on in the country. Many thanks to you and the gang here for cheering up my day!!
Sorry I’m late, been very busy for an old guy. Still have snow on the ground with large open patches and waiting for our first Killdeer. Temps to be very cold tomorrow and Friday.
Yeah, this post and the comments have also kept me distracted me from some of the unpleasantries going on around us, Dick. Hope your killdeer show up soon.
Hurray for the meadowlark photos. Hurray for the perch. Hurray for the creator of the perch. I know you have been a school teacher and academia now goes in for the “new” names for our fauna ( bison, pronghorn, etc.) but buffalo is still a good name for this magnificent creature.
I’m certainly not maligning the use of the term “buffalo”, Doc. That’s one of the reasons I used it here. Five times…
Oh, who gives a flap
Where the buffalo crap?
It was their home before it was ours.
And a meadowlark lit
Upon old bison sh*t.
Why’d the EPA lose all its power?
OK, works too hard for the last rhyme, but the sentiment’s there. Apologies for ruining Home on the Range. Apparently, your blog readers are Freudian and enamored by all things poop (and probably other Freudian stuff). 😉 That’s why I love this community! Some of my favorite classroom fossils are corprolites as well. I love telling the kids what they are after I’ve passed them around the classroom. Mwahaha.
Ha, you and I are so damned much alike, Marty! I used to have an owl made out of compressed cow manure. I’d pass it around in the class until everyone had handled it and then tell them what it was made out of. The looks of horror on their faces, and the squeals and shreiks from the girls (mostly), were one of the many delights of my teaching career!
It’s gotta be our birthdays being just a day apart. My dad, even though his birthday was in December, was that kind of a teacher too (and he lived in a teepee for a while at SIU). I must be your “sister from a different mister.” 😛
Hi Ron, i am a fairly new reader to your posts and i don’t think there is a day that i haven’t loved the photos. For todays Western meadowlark, can you tell me how far away from the subject were you? I appreciate all the camera info as posted but always wonder just how close you are to the subject. In my opinion i loved the perch.
I’d only be guessing, K – I was with this bird for some time and it continually moved closer and further away as it searched for food. Perhaps about 25’…
I’ve seen it, but never photographed the event. But i do have some “buffalo chips” in a plastic bag
that I’ve used when giving talks to folks about “Life on the Great Plains,” and I still have three large
buffalo robes left over from a time when I slept in my 19ft Sioux Indian Tipi… They were my bed, top,
and bottom. Few people know just how important the buffalo was to the Native Americans, and how
important “buffalo chips” were for fuel to folks on, or crossing the prairie who couldn’t find wood for
a fire. It must have been quite a sight to see herds of buffalo that stretched from horizon to horizon.
Sorry I missed it….. ;-)))
I’m sorry I missed it too, Roger. Scenes on Antelope Island can occasionally approach what it must have been like but it’s still not quite the same.
Roger–I’d sure like to hear more about your living in a tipi…where, when, why, how long and then what…. We had a Buffalo robe, it was very warm and VERY heavy….used it in the cutter. I never did remember how to put up the tipi poles in the correct order ,,,even the first three….as for lifting the cover, forget it! A 19′ tipi isn’t for midgets….
Patty, Roger responded to your questions with an email he sent to me and he asked me to forward it to you, which I’ve now done. It’s quite long with many photos so it couldn’t be posted here. Thank you Roger, from both of us. I was curious too. Very interesting.
Sorry! I’m on a roll…I often try to imagine what a place must have looked like before it was “developed” (ruined) by mankind…that includes Manhattan and the prairies. As the Lakota, and other prairie folks knew, the buffalo were vital to the plains. The seeds of the prairie grasses were distributed and nourished in their excrement, and their sharp, pointed toes pushed the seed into the ground, planting them…they were the original “agricultural managers” of our once vast priaries…and very effective…..
Patty, Bill West, the manager of Red Rock Lakes NWR in Montana, is looking into replacing the cattle they have to graze there occasionally (to manage the grasslands) with more natural and permanent bison. I hope he succeeds but for lots of reasons it’s an uphill battle (for example, the expense of all the special fences needed to contain bison).
Just to add to the complete disgust of the “eeuuuwers”, we went barefoot most of the Summer and one of our pleasures was to step on FRESH cow pies on our way to the creek to “swim”( wadecand splash around)….We used the dried ones like frisbees (the original frisbees?)..dried ,buffalo chips were a staple feul for many of our ancestors….now,the poop of carnivores is something else……
“now,the poop of carnivores is something else”
You’ve got that right!
And I think this is one of the reasons that most modern folks have so much aversion for animal feces. Most of the poop they encounter from critters is from their dogs and/or cats and neither is pleasant to deal with, on any level.
….and their own !!!!
Muffy’s comment struck home…I never had much tolerance for anyone who freaked out when an animal urinated or defacated,,,still don’t. They tend to be the same wimps that cringe and go, “Eeuw!” When they see a worm , caterpillar or insect of any kind. Right or wrong, I feel instant contempt for them. The Buffalo chip is nio less attractive to me than a knot of weathered wood. And no less natural. Big deal!!! Unfortunately, there is a growing number of people like this, people who are further and further removed from ANYTHING natural, who don’t understand or value anything natural, and therefore see no point in defending or protecting it….Sad,sad,sad!!!
I’m glad you appreciated Muffy’s comment, Patty. I think this is the first time I’ve incorporated a FB comment into the text of one of my posts.
And these same people who “ewwww” will pay big bucks to buy “organic” fertilizer for their gardens.
Having grown up where old lava rock was common I could have seen the poop as a rock. The bird is beautiful and the setting doesn’t detract in any way. The yellow is stunning. Thanks.
Yes, that yellow really stands out. Thank you, Betty.
Ron, love the meadowlarks. We some sort of a state representative here in Oregon that wants to change our state bird. He has put a bill in Salem for the last 8 years or so. We have the Western Meadowlark, he wants the state bird changed to the Osprey. He has no traction at this time. Hope he never does.
–
As for poops. One of my nephews is a grade school science teacher. When he and his brother were way young, technology was banned from my car and home. So we had to go out for entertainment or play checkers, not gameboy . One of our (or mine) “fun” days was to look under cowpies–wet-dry–other. We did many other odd outdoor stuff. Well he has mentioned that we should have done more of that. It was hard to force them to do some stuff. Oh well. Lichen days were the worst for the boys. Some weekends I could not find my guide books for some reason.
So keep up with your “crap happy” photo birds. jake
Ha, I looked under many hundreds of cow pies when I was a kid growing up on the Montana farm, Jake. A little cow poop under the fingernails never hurt anyone!
Fie on your politician who wants to change the state bird! May a meadowlark poop in his cornflakes…
Ron, I do have an email almost ready to send to him. Can I add “May a meadowlark poop in his cornflakes…” to it? For I may not have been as nice as you.
Sometimes not only under the finger nails when I was young. I still do look under them. Got some nice scorpion photos in the Trout Creek Mountains of se Oregon last summer.
jake
Sure, send it to him with my compliments!
How about a bison? 😉
Works for me!
Thanks Ron. What would life be without excrement and singing birds?
As a city woman I never would have known what he chose for a perch.
Diana
“What would life be without excrement and singing birds?”
Exactly, Diana. Two of the essentials of life!
Wonderful photo’s in the “natural” environment! 🙂 Of course, being “country” “chips” on any sorts are not an issue! 🙂
I understand that “being country” thing, Judy. Thanks.
As a New Englander, if you had not told me what it was, I would have thought that perch was a chunk of old wood. My first thought was how small the bird looked in comparison (or vice versa). Beautiful bird, and the poop/chip is interesting too!
You’re right, it does kind of resemble a gnarly old stump, Nancy. Thanks.
Why those in search of natural perches would balk at a chip eludes me. It doesn’t even look all that fresh. Love meadowlark and glad to see him in his element!
“Why those in search of natural perches would balk at a chip eludes me.”
Excellent, excellent point, Mk! My thoughts exactly.
Chip, Chip, Hurray for Western Meadowlarks and poop perches! (I couldn’t resist). Thanks for imagining a primordial prairie landscape full Meadowlark song!
I’m glad you couldn’t resist, Robert. I enjoyed your comment!
I love it. As you describe, a common scene where there are buffalo. The song of the MeadowLark is simply magnificent no matter the perch!
Thank you, Keith. Sadly this bird never did sing while it was on the chip.