For anyone wanting to see some pics tonight, here are some pics.

[JeffR]

Two views of Henry Moore's Three Way Piece No. 2 (The Archer) at City Hall:





Holy Trinity Church, 1847:



Trinity Square. Don't know what this sculpture is called, but I think of it as The Exploding Metal Inevitable:



Old City Hall:





Milan's Department Store in Little India (might have posted this before):



A neighborhood pizza place:



Can anyone tell we what this guy is? I've always referred to these birds as grackles, but I could be wrong:

[regnaD kciN]

1. It's a starling...

...and brings back lots of memories from around twelve or so years ago. On Palm Sunday (just like today), one of those somehow got down our chimney and got stuck in the woodstove. (We were alerted to the fact by all the fluttering sounds, plus all our cats congregating around the stove.) Anyway, after a quick phone call to the Audubon Society, we were told to lock all the cats in another room, close all blinds on all the windows, leave the front door open, and open the woodstove. We did so, and the starling made a couple of circuits of the living room before finally spotting the open door and flying out. (No, I never got any photos of it.)

[JeffR]

2. Thank you. And great story.

I always thought starlings were smaller than these birds. Then again, as I've said here before, what I don't know about birds is a lot.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. grackles are bigger, a little

and have a V-shaped tail, thus the name "boat-tailed" grackles

[JeffR]

4. Do they have a sort of iridescent head?

Sort of blue?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. yep

see
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Common_Grackle.html

[JeffR]

8. Thanks!

:)

[qnr]

7. Depends upon the species. In the Great-tailed grackles here in Corpus, the females are

brown.
Male:

Female:

[qnr]

6. I would say European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris - not because I'm an expert, but

because I had to check my books to identify some in my own photos earlier today. :)

[JeffR]

9. I'm going to go with that

if for no other reason than Sturnus vulgaris is a cool name.
;-)

[Mira]

10. That is a lot of different kinds of beauty fabulously presented.

You do know how to frame architecture.
All that and HENRY MOORE, too. SMOOOOTH.

[qnr]

11. Wonderful photos. I'm curious about the church. Is it active? Why does it look

so "empty"?

[JeffR]

12. They stage a lot of concerts and events

I think they were part way through setting up for one when I poked my head in on a Thursday afternoon. This is a thriving inner-city outreach parish.

[ConsAreLiars]

13. I don't think I've said it before, but

stating the obvious, like grass is often green and the sky is often blue, your photos are ALWAYS extraordinary. They make me see things I sorta glimpsed maybe a few times or more often never.

[JeffR]

16. What an incredibly generous thing to say.

Thank you.

[Mira]

19. You deserve accolades for saying something that is true so poetically N/T

[Tindalos]

14. I really like your architectural pictures

You always find good angles to show off building to good effect.


Btw, did you know a group of starlings is called a murmuration? I don't know about murmuring, but they sure can be loud early in the morning.

[JeffR]

17. Murmuration is a great word!

That's even better than a murder of crows.:)

[Celebration]

15. A wee bit depressing

Just a reminder of how much I need to learn about photography.

[JeffR]

18. We all have things to teach and much more to learn.

That's something about photography that non-practitioners fail to see. There's always something more to learn, or learn in more detail. It's a process of endless discovery. But you already know a lot; it shows.