Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Males Of The Species


"They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men." ~ Clare Booth Luce


Clockwise from top left: bluebird, cardinal, goldfinch, red-bellied woodpecker... all male.

Male birds are almost always the more brilliantly colored of the two sexes. They preen and puff and show off their feathers to attract the female. If they were human, they would spend almost their whole life in front of a mirror. The male bird is supposed to help build the nest, but this particular bluebird has been falling down on the job the last two years. I've seen him take three or four pine needles into the birdhouse and leave her to do the rest.


Clockwise from top: Mr. Rhett (Babe Magnet), Sir Nicky, and Mr. Max (now departed)... again, all male.

Mr. Max had the male attitude.. he wanted to get between us and any stranger and he had a particular distrust of bicyclists and runners. He also had a certain male mechanical prowess... he could distinguish between the motors of different lawn mowers and he knew the sound of the man's mower who did Mom and Dad's yard. If we heard a mower and heard him bark.. our yard was being done. But the neighbor's mower... no. Even when the lawn guy, who lived next door, did his own yard... Max was quiet. To me the mowers all sounded the same... distinguishing a difference must be a guy thing. The cats... well, they are cats and not really out to prove themselves to anyone. However, these two males have the eyes to charm the most suspicious female... as long as the female is human. Apparently, female cats are not as susceptible to the "come hither" looks of these male casanovas as human females are. One look from these blue eyes and women melt. They develop an overwhelming desire to feed or brush or give ear scratches and head rubs to these two. How they can look so manly and pitiful at the same time is... well, another guy thing.


Clockwise from top left: Three cousins...David, Rick and Stephen.
Also known affectionately as "The Floating Heads"
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Last, but definitely not least, we have three males from a family... my family. My brother, Stephen, who is currently in Japan.. and our cousins, Rick and Dave, who are renovators and woodworkers extraordinaire. David designed and drew the plans for Stephen's sunroom and they build the furniture for inside. They also did the woodworking trim inside, the trellis outside and the deck skirt. They are amazing craftsmen.

(end of post)
Saturday Photo Hunt ~ "Male"

10 comments:

Isolated Existence said...

Great entries!! My favorite, the one with the cats. Gorgeous eyes!

Beverly said...

I love your post here.  You have hit the males on the head, to besure.

Alice Audrey said...

Looks like that blue bird isn't judge by his nest building abilities.

kenju said...

An interesting juxtaposition of males. I would NEVER pose for a photo looking straight down into the camera. I learned that while placing a centerpiece on a mirror and caught my reflection in the mirror and was devastated at my appearance!

Rambling Woods said...

I've often seen teenage boys standing around looking at girls and thought of the pond mallard drakes preening for the females...we have so much more in common than people want to admit...
(
I do so admire craftsmen. My grandfather (was) and uncle is carpenters and have done some really beautiful things...It is a talent....Michelle

Ginny Hartzler said...

Wow! what a treat today!! The bird pictures are so wonderful and clear, you even got a worm in the beak!!! And then what a cool surprise to scroll down and see THOSE EYES!!! Mr. Rhett has been staring intently at those bird pictures, as well!! I had to double click on him, and I almost became hypnotized and was not able to return to the blog!!

luna miranda said...

this is a fantastic post!  marvelous photos are captions.  "The Floating Heads" is quite interesting.

Sandra said...

all the brilliant colors of the birds make me happy to look at them, then i got to the photos of your pets and my smile was splitting my face, so sorry you lost Max, we had a Max also, he died in 2002 and we still miss him. you have a very talened family of floating heads. that is some trick they have.

colleen said...

Makes me wonder how the last photo was set up and makes me want to learn how to use a better camera to get bird shots as good as yours.

Col said...

Amazing photo of your brother and cousins! And so nice to see a photo once more of dear Mr. Max.