Audubon Becomes Obsessed with Birds

Audubon Becomes Obsessed with Birds

Audubon Becomes Obsessed with Birds

because, as a prelude to mating, the male brings home a gift of food and sings;

because both birds & whales sing; 

because both birds & whales migrate – ergo birds are the souls of whales;

because you need a compass and a map to migrate accurately;

because migrating birds have both;

because the ancient mariners learned to navigate from birds;

because steamer ducks, penguins, ratites and emus, ostriches, rheas, cassowaries 
    and kiwis, Galapagos cormorants and a grebe from the Andean lakes are all truly 
    grounded;

because the New Zealand Takahe, the Mesites, the Rails and the Kagu cannot take 
    off either;

because the Dodo, the Mascarene Solitaire, the Great Auk and the Elephant-bird 
    might still exist today, if only they had flown; 

because the Romans tagged their legs with coloured rags to tell the folks at home the 
    name of He who won the chariot race;

because Greek sages practised divination from the flight of birds;

because the Rongorongo tablets of Easter Island tell of The Rite of The Sacred 
    Birdman;

because the scribes of ancient Egypt saw Existence rise from Non-Existence in the 
    shape of the Bennu Bird;

because the Bennu Bird becomes the Phoenix of the Greeks;

because the Phoenix builds a nest of scented branches, starts a fire and is 
    consumed by flames;

because the Romans saw Aquarius as a heaven-flying bird;

because the Maya saw Aquarius as Coz, the Celestial Falcon;

because the ancient Hindus called Aquarius ‘Garuda’, the Birdman; vehicle of 
    Vishnu, the Preserver;

because these myths mix birds, astronomy and water into symbols of rebirth and life;

because birds know what time it is;

because vultures gathering indicate dead men;

because birds are like ideas – they visit us fleetingly, then disappear.