Tuesday, January 29, 2008


"surf's.up"

Image is based on NZ surf .

Yesterday morning I saw an accipiter hawk flapping and gaining altitude and then it dive bombed abut thirty flying pigeons. I suspect it is the same Cooper's Hawk that I saw a month or so ago.

All of this seen from the train platform as my train approached at 8:12 AM. Did not see if the hunt continued.

Commuting can be hell and sometimes is also for the birds.

10 comments:

Bev said...

This looks like moorland and heather to me. In fact before I read your posting properly I was looking for the hawk in the picture.lol Amazing what can be done with digital effects.

Never read the 'commuting can be hell' in quite the same way before! Glad to hear you have birds like hawks near you, obviously plenty of birdlife around. Surprising to me as I sort of picture you living in an apartment on Manhattan island where there aren't many birds around lol

Kris Cahill said...

This is gorgeous! To me it looks like a cosmic wave riding in, digging up deeply under the surface whatever was there and bringing it forth.

Your color sense is subtle and very interesting to me. I'd love to see this really large, the size of a gallery wall. It has such a depth to it. Great!

Irene said...

I am trying to picture you on the train platform in your business clothes with a newspaper tucked under your arm and a briefcase in your hand. None of those other people there will know that you have another life making stunning images on the Internet. To them you will probably look like just another commuter, unless you look very bohemian and have a long beard and wild hair. It is funny how we all have a secret self that we carry with us so innocently as we walk around in the ordinary world. To know that there is nothing ordinary about us and to assume that there is about all those other people.

I like your image today. It makes me think of an English landscape with a row of hedges and lots of meadows behind it. A hawk could be flying around there.

Bobbie said...

Ok, John I'm going to stick your feet to the fire. Where are the images with the 3 step process. I am serious, get busy! lol, not joking, only prodding.

I never can identify hawks, there are so many down here in the winter and then there are the "juveniles". I give up on the ones that are flying. I know for sure only the red-tailed hawk and the sparrowhawk. They like to cruise my chickens and guinea fowl. I run out with my arms flapping and yelling to the top of my voice, but they are so danged brazen and just sit back and look at me.

I like this art, John. And as everyone says I can picture it hanging on (my) wall :) The colors are nice and to me, being an old desert rat, looks like a dust storm .

The Artful Eye said...

I immediately saw a bank of Ceanothus, flanked by lush green marshlands. Ceanothus sanguineus- Beautiful shrub known here in the Western U.S. with lovely bluish foliage. I had to hop on over to the Lisa's NZ surf to see if I could pick up on the wave action. Toggling between the two. Beautiful transformation. Oh..and about that commute. Call me crazy-but I'd rather stand on the platform,ride the subway and watch folks talk to themselves as the lights flicker on and off any day then drive in 85-95mph ,in 6 lanes of traffic while folks shave, brush teeth, read paper and talk on cellphones.
... and about the gum wrapper guy, nuts eh?! and who thought of this word verification mumbo jumbo. These letters most times unreadable to the point where you have to enter them several times until you strike it lucky or lucky strike it. aarggghh. let me try again.

John M. Mora said...

Bev, I used to live in manhattan but that was 12 years ago - 70 dog years at least. I am an hour out in residential neighborhood near ocean - some mornings if wind is right I smell brine. Central Park in manhattan actually is a marvelous birding spot - worl famous since only place birds can land at sunrise during migration.

Thanks, everyone - very kind. Bobbie, Rome was not painted in a day. Got to love you, though.

Kim said...

I see a wall of mossy coral and I like the parched earthy segments...
we have the odd hawk over here ...but it's mainly the kookaburras...pelicans and seagulls that visit ...
probably because I live on a slender strip of land between the ocean and the lake :)
I can see this image wall size too John :)

dianeclancy said...

Hi John,

I love this image!

First I saw an ocean ... not of water ... but an ocean. Then when I read about the heather and moorland .. that put a name to what I felt like the ocean was made up of.

Beautiful!

Good luck commuting!

~ Diane Clancy
www.dianeclancy.com/blog

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

So glad you got to play in.with NZ surf too!
I hardly recognised it, love the golden glow you have at the top and the fossilish negative look midway.

I am going with the long haired bohemian BTW. Just not the socks and sandles look...Puh-lease!!

John M. Mora said...

Thanks everyone - I am not a bohemian - short hair, khaki pants most days, polos most days, my blackberry is my briefcase, 80 gig iPod with cheap Sony speakers (I tossed the white apple ear buds).

Love my iPod, dislike iTune store, love certain podcasts.