Uropygial ~ Uropygium

Bend to the winds of heaven.
And learn tranquility

Uropygial ~ Uropygium            Encompassing 2:2:2

Preening, or primping in relation to ornithology means, “to groom with the bill especially by re-arranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland.” Source

Pelican Preenning
Pelican Primping

And what a fancy word uropygial gland turns out to be. So to discover what that part of the bird might be: Uropygium is defined thusly; “the projecting terminal portion of a bird’s body, from which the tail feathers spring”.Source

 

Mallards primping

Now turning to wikpedia it happens that “the uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobate sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds,” which happens to be at the tail end of the bird. Voila!

Pelican Preenning
Pelican Preening

Without the preening, the bird’s feather’s deteriorate, water-proofing is lost, an additional source of Vitamin D3 is absent, and the bird is more vulnerable to bird lice.

So this home-made cosmetic coming from their the uropygial gland works wonders for birds of all shapes and sizes is vital and necessary to their survival.

“Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite.”
― Karl Lagerfeld

Try a walk in the  Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK.  While there, walk past the West Swale wetlands, and observe the birds primping or preening themselves with oil from the nifty little uropygial gland.

“Think about it — do you really want to live in a world of only two dimensions?”~ Vera Nazarian,

Did you know: In regards to the American Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, a couple facts numbered here:

  1. “All species lay at least two eggs, and hatching success for undisturbed pairs can be as high as 95 percent, but because of competition between siblings or outright siblicide, usually all but one nestling dies within the first few weeks.”source
  2. The “Two eggs are laid over a two-day period and then incubated by both adults for approximately 30 days”source

And, did you know, A couple of facts about the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos:

  1. “The ducklings are lead to water as soon as their soft, downy feathers are dry and they first fly about 2 months after hatching. “source
  2. “Mallard Ducks will grow to about two feet long and weigh around 2 -1/2 pounds.”source

       Stand firm.  Grip hard.
    Thrust upward to the skies.
    Bend to the winds of heaven.
    And learn tranquility.

    ~Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Should you wish to help protect / enhance the afforestation areas, please contact the City of Saskatoon, Corporate Revenue Division, 222 3rd Ave N, Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J5…to support the afforestation area with your donation please state that your donation should go towards  the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, or the George Genereux Urban Regional Park, or both afforestation areas located in the Blairmore Sector. Please and thank you!  Your donation is greatly appreciated.

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

 

“St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

“The science of forestry arose from the recognition of a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life and, in addition, ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests. Besides, the spiritual side of human nature needs the refreshing inspiration which comes from trees and woodlands. If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. And nations as well as tribes may be brought together in this great movement, based on the ideal of beautifying the world by the cultivation of one of God’s loveliest creatures – the tree.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker.

 

“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

 

Cloud Songs

I believe in the Oneness of Mankind and all living things and the interdependence of each and all.

Clouds
Clouds

The air is full ~ a whistling land;
What was that I heard
Out of the hazy land?
Harp of the wind, or song of bird,
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Red_winged_blackbird_-_natures_pics
The song of a bird is not a reminiscence,
… but an anticipation, and expresses happiness or joy.
There is no better song than this.
The day being bright and mild, with great masses of white cloud in the sky.
Can you see the melting away of the cloud into the clean air at the fringe of its edges and here, and now,
Have you caught the tune of the warbler?
A singular medley of notes, hurried chirps,
trills, calls, warbles.
And there to seek with eyes that glisten for the bird in song;
No doubt at all about the superior quality of the song.while, as of late, some fluffy clouds, white and woolly, floated in the pale sky.
Picture it now if you would
Tall, towering clouds lighted by the sun, a virtual floating island.
Stop, shhh, quiet, listen the song oft repeated and prolonged.
It is a ringing, animated strain, silvern and golden.
And the blackbird with its lilt and only a few bars of its song, Enough to satisfy of the surprising quality of the strain.
The sun now high and warm, with hardly a cloud in the sky; and yonder a mist,
High up on the tall tree the red breasted thrush was pouring out his song, and filling the woods with melody.
Such full-throated harmony and long-drawn cadences.
Melody, tenderness, and plaintiveness.
And as Keats once said;
“And with thee fade away into the forest dim.”

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area in the fog
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area in the fog

I believe in the Oneness of Mankind and all living things and the interdependence of each and all.~ Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year).  Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers  Please and thank you!  Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated.  Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

QR Code FOR PAYPAL DONATIONS to the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc.
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Membership : $20.00 CAD – yearly
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1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

What was Richard St. Barbe Baker’s mission, that he imparted to the Watu Wa Miti, the very first forest scouts or forest guides?  To protect the native forest, plant ten native trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere.

“We stand in awe and wonder at the beauty of a single tree. Tall and graceful it stands, yet robust and sinewy with spreading arms decked with foliage that changes through the seasons, hour by hour, moment by moment as shadows pass or sunshine dapples the leaves. How much more deeply are we moved as we begin to appreciate the combined operations of the assembly of trees we call a forest.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker

 

 

Not the smallest piece of chaos

Here, is the world…perfect

Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52″ (105-130 cm) four feet standing.

“Here is the world, sound as a nut, perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52″ (105-130 cm) four feet standing.

The trees and vegetation, which cover the land surface of the Earth and delight the eye, are performing vital tasks incumbent upon the vegetable world in nature. Its presence is essential to earth as an organism. It is the first condition of all life; it it the ‘skin’ of the earth, for without it there can be no water, and therefore, no life. ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker

Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52″ (105-130 cm) four feet standing.

The shores of the West Swale Wetlands. The background is sylvan and serene with Trembling Aspen bluffs and woodland horizon. In the right foreground are cattails and reed grasses, overgrown with shrubbery. At the left is a Willow idyllic and pastoral. Common waterfowl and ducks swim about the waters.

In the midst of her empire of rich rolling prairie are marsh and wetlands, breathless and wooded hills, overlooking our two great herons. It is here in this bucolic setting that the Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, and the Great Blue Heron Areda herodias roost, and forage. The idyllic landscape displaying every natural beauty, forest, sunlit waters, and grasslands meadow, at their bluest and their greenest.

In order to be perfect, the future poet should
Know every sound of nature, of river, lake an’ wood,
Should know each whispered note and every answerin’ call—
The world of poetry’s lookin’ up an’ poets climbin’ higher;
~ Tacitus Hussey

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )

Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year).  Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers  Please and thank you!  Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated.  Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

Canada Helps

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

What was Richard St. Barbe Baker’s mission, that he imparted to the Watu Wa Miti, the very first forest scouts or forest guides?  To protect the native forest, plant ten native trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere.

“We stand in awe and wonder at the beauty of a single tree. Tall and graceful it stands, yet robust and sinewy with spreading arms decked with foliage that changes through the seasons, hour by hour, moment by moment as shadows pass or sunshine dapples the leaves. How much more deeply are we moved as we begin to appreciate the combined operations of the assembly of trees we call a forest.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker

 

 

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