wabi sabi

this feather is perfect. perfectly damaged. perfectly imperfect. for me, far more interesting than an undamaged “perfect” feather.

we have a pair of nesting sandhill cranes in our cattails. it’s thrilling for us. The pair have been tending to a nest with two eggs for three weeks. One more week to go before we will have little chicks (called colts!) running around. Mom and Dad are working hard. alternating incubating the eggs in two hour shifts. and, on top of all that, they are also molting. this is the seventh wing feather i’ve found. molting, like incubating, is also incredibly hard work for birds. they only molt when food sources are abundant. dropping flight feathers puts them at all sorts of risk. at first i thought “really? incubation and molting at the same time. so not fair!” but it makes sense in that they can’t leave the nest anyway—they are more or less grounded by their need to protect the nest. this 13 inch long feather was floating in the reeds this morning. steve scooped it out and presented it to me. a perfect gift. perfect in its imperfection.

sandhill crane wing feather