FRIDAY FLASHBACK

The awesome photographs atop this entry of a Peregrine Falcon, were taken by Reggie Williams. He is a technician who I met at an Imaging Center a little over a month ago. I had gone to that Xray facility at the urging of my doctor, who upon examining me for injuries I sustained on the Saturday prior to this past Memorial Day, urged me to have a specific Xray.

I had asked Reggie (who was supervising my particular technician) to take a couple photos of the equipment that was being used to diagnosis the extent of my injury because I was so grateful to be able to avail myself of Xrays that would pinpoint the extent of my injury. The pictures he took on that day can be seen in the next set of images (and you might recognize them from as they are nearly identical to images used in one of my previous posts).

I explained to him that my reason for requesting this, was because on a few occasions I had participated in rescuing wild birds who had ultimately passed away; and their dying was attributed to the fact that the bird rehab place where I had taken them did not have proper Xray equipment due to lack of funding. I also confided that whenever my book series becomes financially successful, it's my goal to help the rehab facility procure proper Xray equipment. Upon hearing my motives, Reggie shared with me his appreciation of wild birds.

In any event, today Reggie Williams and the date of my aforementioned Xrays are on my mind today because it was only a few days ago that I discovered the pictures of the falcon atop this entry which he evidently had emailed me on June 14th! I'm not sure why I only recently discovered the correspondence, but, I'm truly thankful that I did. With his magnificent photographs, Reggie included the following message:

"Hi Patricia, 

It was a pleasure meeting and speaking with you in addition to providing your medical imaging at Lenox Hill Radiology last week. I attached a few pictures of the raptor that I took while I lived in Boston. I left out the more grotesque ones where the bird was actually feeding :-). Your blog is great and I will look in more often for a good read. 

It is truly amazing, the people we meet, in our day to day travels and such. I'd be remiss not to mention how thankful I am to have met you. I took a look at your blog and it inspired me to continue writing and taking pictures. Things that I have enjoyed doing all my life but have let get away from me. You have a very pleasant aura. Thank you for chatting with me and I look forward to speaking with you soon!

Have a blessed day!"

My discovery of Reggie Williams' email to me came at an opportune time, as I'm on shaky ground these days, and as a result, I often experience discouragement, even despair re my circumstances.

Thank you, Reggie Williams, for sharing your awesome photographs and heartfelt words with me!

A Friday Follow-Up AND "This is not a joke..." Turns Out "My" Peregrine Falcon is an American (or Common) kestrel!

Yesterday, in one of my entries here on Blogger, I announced that a member of the fauna community whom I had never seen in my urban garden, paid me a visit. The bird I'm referring to can be seen in the image atop this entry where he/she is alighting on the branches of my kiwi vines, that wrap around the railing of my rooftop garden (in NYC).

In the aforementioned post, I wrote this about my newbie visitor : "I studied the newcomer through the camera's long lens and made the determination he/she was a Peregrine Falcon..." 

However, because I'm not that confident in my bird ID-ing skills, after I published my entry on Blogger, I went to my Facebook Page for The Last Leaf Gardener as well as my Facebook Page for Patricia Youngquist, and I reached out to those who read my page, asking if I was correct in my determination. As it turns out I was not! It turns out that "my" visitor was not a Peregrine Falcon, but she was an American (or Common) kestrel!