BIF: Indigo Bunting

largelylivin

This week I saw an Indigo Bunting in my back yard. Once having seen this incredibly blue bird I can say without a doubt that it is the first Indigo Bunting that I have ever seen in my 55 years. But, this is as much about the story of photographing my first Indigo Bunting as the photograph itself, so let me start at the beginning.

I have a 4 year old Portuguese Water Dog named Franklin. He is the best dog that I've ever had or even heard of: better than Lassie. Sometimes he is smarter than me and sometimes he teaches himself to do things that I haven't even though of. Ocassionally we need leave our boat and we have tought him to sit in the fishing chair in the cockpit and stay. He has decided that this is his job, to sit in the chair and guard over his dominion, our boat. He is dilligent. People and dogs approach and all they get is a tail wag for he will not leave the chair. Its not that our boat needs protecting, but if some ignorant stranger ignored our 70lb Franklin and boarded the boat he would be immediately overwhelmed with an enthusiastic flurrry of doggie kisses. Franklin's record, the longest we have ever tested him, is 1 1/2 hours: still in the chair, upright and allert.

Down the dock is a tea cup Yorkshire Terrier. I little brown ball of fur weighing less than a pound. God or Darwin has given little Yorkies tremendous speed, like Speedy Gonzolas in the cartoons, so than the breed can avoid extincition from being stepped on by humans. The owner often walks by with his unleashed Yorkie and Franklin, who loves other dogs, watches intently but remains dilligent to his task of protecting the boat. Once in a while, maybe every month or so, the Yorkie, in a sudden fit of unbridled energy and perhaps to tease Franklin, will jump into our boat, zip across the cockpit and jump into the next boat, jump back into our boat and back up to the dock. Now from Franlklin's brain to his hind legs is about 7 Yorkies so in Yorkie time it take a while for those back legs to react and Franklin only get's his head about halfway turned before the Yorkie is gone, leaving Franklin's butt squarely planted in his seat.

So, to complete the story, I offer up this picture of Franklin.

dbaker1221