Wednesday, May 16, 2007

C'est la vie!

Turkey vulture feeding on rabbit

"Some days you feel on top of the world, some days you feel like roadkill."
Isabella ;-)

What kind of day are you having?

17 comments:

Jing said...

Roadkill....
:(((

jing

pusa said...

ohh sad, if not for the story i would just thought the bird is piocking up some leftovers... oh well that's the circle of life

Olivier said...

cette photo me fait penser au poeme de baudelaire l'Albatros (je ne prefere pas essayer de le traduire, pour ne pas detruire ce chef-d'œuvre :

this photograph makes me think of the poem baudelaire the Albatross (I do not prefer to try to translate it, not to destroy this masterpiece) :


Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

A peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d'eux.

Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.

kuanyin333 said...

Somewhere in the middle....

Love your photo!

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

Ouch!!! poor rabbit!!!
top of the world....am loving the brief breather that I have got between semesters .....:)

angela said...

Some days the bug, some days the windscreen.
I wish you all a Turkey Vulture day..
Angela

Peter said...

Some blogserver problems gave a bad start of the day...

I find this picture fantastic, a mixture of cruelty and hapiness..

Anonymous said...

Oh! Lapin cru pour petit déjeuner, je me rappelle Paris!
Oh my, see what you've done to me today!

isa said...

Thanks Olivier - I like this poem, too!

The Albatross


Often, to amuse themselves, the men of the crew
Catch those great birds of the seas, the albatrosses,
lazy companions of the voyage, who follow
The ship that slips through bitter gulfs.


Hardly have they put them on the deck,
Than these kings of the skies, awkward and ashamed,
Piteously let their great white wings
Draggle like oars beside them.


This winged traveler, how weak he becomes and slack!
He who of late was so beautiful, how comical and ugly!
Someone teases his beak with a branding iron,
Another mimics, limping, the crippled flyer!


The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,
Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking.

Charles Baudelaire

TOG said...

To answer your 'What kind of day are you having?', I'm doing better then the rabbit.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Baudelaire.

Today, I'm feeling a bit like this:

The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,
Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking.

Anonymous said...

Thank God for the Turkey Vultures to clean up after our "accidental" crashes with wildlife. Otherwise it would be on disease after another. It is a great bird in size too. And I would give quite a bit to get a close up photo of one.

So when I saw your photo I came running.

Ming the Merciless said...

Turkey vultures and maggots are natures garbage disposal systems. Otherwise, there will be carcasses lying all over the place.

Not a pretty sight but so necessary.

Jilly said...

Great photo. Ever the optimist, I'd say I'm not roadkill today. Who said optimists are idiots? (someone did). But one day we'll all be roadkill - dust to dust and all that jazz. Nature.



Hope those birds made it yesterday.

AinZ said...

Great how you captured the vulture with its wings spread out. Didn't notice the rabbit until I read your caption. poor bunny...

Anonymous said...

That quote and picture made me smile -- yes, roadkill lately. (Looking fearfully over shoulder for any turkey vultures.) :)

JAM said...

Love the quote from the famous philosopher Isabella. The world can be a brutal place. I saw four of these guys getting started on an opossum one morning on the way to work, and on the way home there was nothing but white bones. Looked as if they'd been boiled they were so clean.

Though I think Mr. Lincoln right, they prevent disease by disposing of the carcass before...