As I can't change my profile due to software problems, I am unable to change my pic or my signature . I found this when researching something else by Henry Thoreau and I just love it...
"A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town."
Henry David Thoreau
This is how I view my bird watching hobby :')
Wow, thanks Adrienne, my vavourite quote is: There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil,--to one who is striking at the root !! Thanks for reminding me of a great philosopher! He was so far ahead of his time, when he wrote about "civil disobedience" in the mid eighteen hundreds. One of my favourite topics. (LOL, who would have guessed?LOL)
M-L
I like both your quotes and I am much the same as you Birdie and Araminta. I think you two get lots out of just seeing the birds and watching their behaviour. You can never have too much of a good thing!
Cheers, Owen.
Deep quotes there Birdie and Araminta. Passion is no doubt a strong, integral part of the human condition.
It's true, you don't have to be surrounded by so many rare species of birds to be into birdwatching. Sometimes it's just watching that lone raven scratching in the leaflitter to hide his meal or listening to the koel on a summer's afternoon.
I don't know, my interpretation of the quote can be different to yours.
Taz
No Taz...you got it as far as I am concerned..... an hour spent with any one bird going about its daily routine is just very cool :)
Sunshine Coast Queensland
I also love to watch the common birds in their daily routine and the main reason I like to see new birds is to learn more about the birds that I have never seen before and it is great to see new behavior and hunting methods, for example the Red-capped Robin hunts from fallen branches like the other Robins but I saw that it spend more time on the ground hunting than Scarlet Robins but less time than Flame Robins.
Cheers, Owen.
Agree whole heartedly with your comments, just saw a bumper sticker which I thought was apt "happiness is not a destination it is a journey". Part of my journey is walking in amongst our native bush, sitting silently and soaking in our beautiful birds, the only reason being...enjoyment.
Love the quotes too - love the pleasure we get just sitting somewhere enjoying the world around us and listening to the birds and the breezes in the trees. I read lots of books too, and we go for walks in the bush (Bob's better than me, can manage the hills where I get puffed and he has to wait for me to catch up). Had cancer last year and was lucky, no chemo or radiation, but took me a while to get back to normal, we have a lot to be grateful for.
Meave
Not really on subject, but my favourite quote is:
"Who is more fool-ish? the fool, or the fool who follows him"
-said by Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) in A New Hope (Star Wars: episode IV).
I am going to find a better quote from real history for myself, but that one does for now.
As for other quotes here I think that there are great. And more are needed... :)
(Please, this quote may not be right. I know this, but if my memory serves me correctly, this is what he said or should have said. There are many different versions of it: "Who's the more foolish? the fool or the fool who follows him". For example.)
This is not a quote as such, but your quote reminds me so much of my mother’s philosophy. She always told us children, and I told mine: Never do ANYTHING, someone else tells you to do, without thinking about it! Only, and only if you think it is right for you, and doesn’t harm others, do it. She very casually added the most important thing : always be very suspicious of anyone who claims, “they know the TRUTH! Because NOBODY in this world does!!! Her philosophy got me (and my free children) often into trouble, but it also allowed me to live with the decisions we made. Right or wrong, they were our own decisions, and I can live with that. Unfortunately this life philosophy is not common practice in the Australian Education System , which is a great danger, and when my children went to School here, I found, that “thinking independently, and for yourself” , was not really appreciated.
Something else my mother always said: There is nothing more dangerous in society, than people who don’t think! (She had first hand experience,she was in the French Resistance!) M-L
M-L
Meave I am hearing you believe me.... more than you can know....it is those little moments observing and listening to the little moments around me that keep me sane :')
Sunshine Coast Queensland