Odd Birds~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life

They remind me,

very much,

of my childhood ballet teachers.

They have the same haughty

mien,

and graceful moves.

They love shaking their tutus,

and dressing up for opening night!

Who doesn’t?

Check out the even more graceful wild ones in South Africa at:

https://cindyknoke.com/tag/south-africa/

Wishing you a Joyous & Healthy New Year from the prancing dancers at Ostrich Land in California~

291 thoughts on “Odd Birds~”

  7. Probably could’ve just been titled, “Odd”, because that’s the real operative word for these guys. I’d align with your prior post – wild would be the better sight. You have a more than interesting ability discovering.

    Did I ever reference the YouTube channel, the “Lion Whisperer”. And he is. A private South Africa reserve for lions with special needs. Love the lions, but him just as much because his relationship with them is all about natural respect. I’m sure you’d appreciate this man and his mission.

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    1. I have seen this man and his lions. The mutual love and trust is heartbreakingly beautiful. Thank you Neil. Wishing You All the Best in The New Year! πŸ‘ͺπŸŒƒπŸ₯‚πŸŽ‡πŸŽ„

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    1. Smiling… Spoken like a truly tactful person! I think I have lots of character too…. πŸ˜‰ πŸ˜‰ I love your posts too Margaret. Happy New Year! πŸ‘ͺπŸŒƒπŸ₯‚πŸŽ‡πŸŽ„

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  17. michael

    Hi Cindy! Sorry for the delay in meeting again. Great characters on your side. Lol I remember some face expressions also by some of our human neighbors in the village. πŸ˜‰ I hope you had a nice Christmas celebration, and wish you and yours a wonderful start to the New Year! xx Michael

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  21. πŸ‘ŒπŸ»πŸ‘ŒπŸ»πŸ“·πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ». πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ».

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    1. I hope not either!! I did become friends with my third grade teacher later in life. She was a rare gem. And my kindergarden teacher too! Another wonderful teacher. Both seemed amused by my child self so I think I’ll survive either way! πŸ˜‰ πŸ˜‰

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  24. They are both graceful and comedically gangly πŸ˜† Your photos make them more beautiful than they appear in real life! πŸ€πŸ–€ Happy New Year to you, too, Cindy! Can’t wait to see your posts for 2023!

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  26. Those feathers are amazing. Dark around the core, long and bright white below, what an arrangement. Nature is wonderfully creative. Thank you for bringing photos and thoughts I wouldn’t see or have otherwise. Happy New Year!

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  30. I can’t believe you got to see them live, and in living color. That’s so exciting. They are beautiful and your photographs make them into perfect models I just love them. What a great post. Thank you, as always. <3

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    1. Wishing You Only The Best & Brightest in 2023 Gigi. I so look forward to sharing another year with you my friend. Your wonderful art lightens my life. Happy New Year! 🎊πŸ₯‚πŸΎ

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  31. Pingback: Odd Birds~ β€”(be sure to look at all of Cindy’s wonderful pictures of these amazing birds) | Rethinking Life

  33. Love these birds often looking so comical yet as you say graceful at the same time ..

    Have a WONDERFUL New Year Cindy and thank you for all of your visits throughout the year ..

    Love and Best wishes Cindy for 2023, and thank YOU for all your wonderful shares of nature, May your adventures continue to inspire us all as you share the beauty <3 …

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  39. You have the best way of connecting with nature. The tutu analogy was brilliant. Happy New Year, my dear friend. Thank you for an amazing 2022. Here’s to the many adventures that will come in 2023.

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  43. Emotions for the soul, remained for my soul! I hug you with love! Divine blessings and infinite love forever! Magical, loving and beautiful New Year! Happy New Year and Happy New Year 2023! β˜˜πŸ€—πŸ₯‚πŸŽ„

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  44. Imagine bumping into one of those on leaving your tent Cindy. We have lots of its smaller (thankfully) cousins, the emu. We were on a working holiday once as kids with my parents, and their work tent was trashed by a group of them. Curious as anything pulling the place apart. The poor worker that woke up with this going on all around him ran screaming into the darkness 🀣 Great post dear lady, they are indeed a big bird. I think if they can bail up a lion, I too would run off screaming into the darkness if they visited πŸ˜‚β€οΈπŸ™πŸ½

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    1. Oh, this made me laugh. Although, I can well imagine your parents, and the poor worker, were far from amused. I saw your emus on my last trip and even managed some not very good photos. A neighbor at The Holler has several. They are very puzzling birds. I would not want to make either an emu or an ostrich mad. They remind me of placid, for the moment, meat-eating dinosaurs!

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      1. Have a lovely and Happy New Year dear lady, I look forward to more delightful images in the new year. And thank you for sharing so much incredible beauty this last year as well πŸ€£πŸ˜€β€οΈπŸ™πŸ½πŸ¦‹βœ¨πŸŽ‡πŸ’₯πŸŒΉπŸΎπŸΈπŸŒΊπŸŒŸπŸŒˆπŸ•ŠπŸ’«

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      1. That makes sense. It’s funny, I was just reading WILD RITUALS and learned that male ostriches have testosterone pink on their shins during breeding season, and then I saw your wonderful ostrich photos. Synchronicity!

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  52. They are graceful and they are proud of their tutus therefore they love to show-off. πŸ™‚
    Thank you for sharing these unique birds’ photograph. πŸ™‚

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    1. Cracking up…. They were probably gorgeous, but to my child’s mind, they were oddities. I remember sitting in a circle on the rug in Sunday School whispering with the other children about why our Sunday School teacher, who always sat in a chair, had hairs in her nose. We thought she was impossibly old. She was probably 40, and gorgeous too! Thank you for making me smile. Wishing you ✨Health and Happiness in The New Year!

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    1. Cracking up!!! This is too perfect!!! I have photos of them opening their huge mouths just as they do in this cartoon but my husband advised me not to post it as it was too ummmm…… biological! Thank you for this. It is hilarious! I read on another site people were starting to caption the post and their ideas were beyond witty. I wish I had done a caption this contest! Wishing you ✨Health and Happiness in The New Year Steve and thank you so much for this chuckle!

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      1. Glad that you got a laugh, Cindy! I did a lot of scrolling to see if anyone else referenced this scene from Fantasia and was surprised that no one had. There’s more with dancing hippos (with tutus too) and alligators that is even more fun.
        For a while there was an ostrich farm in a nearby town but they had to move it because gawkers were causing accidents.

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  55. What a perfect connection! This summed up most ballet teachers. Wait… are ostrich birds in Fantasia? I know the ballet dance is with hippos, but why do I think ostriches are in the movie, too?

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    1. Two people mentioned this and one person shared a clip. It IS apparently from the old Disney Fantasia. This must have registered unconsciously in my child brain. Honestly the Disney animators were genius naturalists. I live amongst road runners and coyotes, and the animators obviously studied them closely because they parodied so many of their mannerisms. Here’s the clip:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RGrCyDAVuk&ab_channel=GracielaAlfaro
      I have photos of their hugely incredible mouths wide open (which my husband told me not to post). If you watch the clip you will see them doing exactly this! Amazing accuracy. I vaguely remember the hippos dancing too, in little skirts if I recall correctly…. Now I’ll go find that…… You got me going!

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      1. Yes!! That’s the clip I remember, including the wide mouths. Disney definitely had geniuses working for them. The hippos- yes! Didn’t they dance with alligators?

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  58. Geoff Le Pard

    I never tried ballet, for which I expect ballet will forever be grateful but the ostrich does have echoes of my preening Latin teacher, Mr Gifford who could make the words ‘Conjugate Geoffrey’ sound like a exhortation to self immolate… aren’t they gorgeous

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    1. Cracking up…. I really should have made this a New Years ‘Caption This’ contest! Wishing you Health & Happiness in The New Year Geoff πŸ™…πŸ˜΄πŸ›ŒπŸ•›

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  61. Vicki

    They certainly dance and move, let alone their appearance, like that of a ballet dancer.

    Hope you have a very Happy New Year – good health and safety in 2023. What a strange world we live in today. Sending you much love and greetings across the miles.
    Vicki πŸ™‚

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    1. Wishing you Health and Happiness in The New Year Eddie! I am sorry for my late response. I just found your second comment in my spam filter with 12 other comments from bloggers I know well. So frustrating დ

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  77. Ha! A trio of these beauties moved onto a farm near us and I can’t get enough. So stately until they ruffle their feathers. Happy New Year, Cindy!

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  91. When I read this blog, I thought–I wonder how her dance teachers would like this comparison? LOL However, you used some very kind words in your comparison–so they may actually have been flattered. πŸ™‚ Love this!!

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    1. Yes I wonder too! πŸ˜‰ They are striking and beautiful birds after all, and women have always worn their feathers, so hopefully, they would get over being offended and just go with the humor. Cheers & thank you Katie & take good care დ

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  93. Thank you so much Cindy and I wish you also all the best for 2023 in good health and with a lot of photography fun. It was great to follow your work and hope to do so in the new year. Greets, Rosie πŸ₯°

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  94. I never thought of it that way, but what a great comparison. Lovely pictures, Cindy. Wishing you the happiest of New Years and a wonderful 2023 to come.

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  95. These are some proud birds but beautiful. I pray that the Lord will continue to bless and strengthen your work. I look forward to another wonderful year of beautiful pictures πŸ“Έ on your blog.

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  98. They have their own unique beauty.
    I could do without dressing up… I think I only did so twice in 2022. And I just can’t imagine anything I’d get fancy for this year… yet anyway.

    Happy, happy!

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  101. Cindy, I’m smiling at this comparison! πŸ˜€ You’re spot on! Hope you’re having a lovely start to 2023 and wishing you a joyful and peaceful New Year! ❀️

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  104. Die hervorragenden Fotos lassen mich schmunzeln. Eine sehr gute Beobachtungsgabe, vielen Dank dafΓΌr. Ich wΓΌnsche dir ein wunderbares Neues Jahr mit vielen schΓΆnen Ideen und Fotos.

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  108. Beautiful of course Cindy but they did also make me laugh, particular that first photograph. I turn 70 in a few weeks and on my 60th, someone commented that I was a bit of an odd bird and to be honest I am even odder now. The expression on that bird’s face is priceless and one I recognise lol.. Happy New Year β™₯β™₯

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    1. Laughing…..Odd Birds are the only way to fly!!! I often wake in the morning looking just like the second bird. Wishing you a Joyous New Year Sally, fille with Health & Happiness! დ

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  110. Cindy, this is delightful. I got a kick out of your “tutus” remark. Such amusing birds. The first one reminds me of one of the teachers way back at my grammar school. She was a character. If only the bird had big clip-on earrings… πŸ˜€ Hugs on the wing.

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    1. Oh YES! Those big, hideous, multi-bauble, glass, clip-on’s that my fifth grade teacher would take off daily to rest her exhausted ear lobes. Ghastly things. They would be perfect on the Osy!! Cheers to you Teagan and thanks for making me smile დ

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  113. Pingback: Smorgasbord Blogger Spotlight 2023 – #Sisters Judith Barrow, #Health D.G. Kaye, #Reviews Jacquie Biggar, #Peace Rebecca Budd, #NewYear Liz Gauffreau, #OddBirds Cindy Knoke | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

  115. I “escaped” ballet. (Took fencing instead…) But my sister didn’t. Gender issues I guess. But I can see what you mean.
    I’ve also seen ostriches in the wild. Interesting birds.
    Happy New Year Cindy.
    πŸ€—

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