Where birds gather against the cold

Isn't it more comfortable inside?
Napanee, ON
January 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Way across the highway from the rest stop where I've come to recharge my proverbial batteries, there's this farm that could easily do double duty in a Norman Rockwell painting. Every time I pass this place - often, recently - I quietly tell myself I need to shoot it. But in the typical road trip rush, it never gets done.

On this day, I'm alone, so it's a little easier to convince everyone in the car to wait a few extra minutes while the psycho-photographer shoots random landscape pictures in the freezing cold for no apparent reason. So just before I get back on the on-ramp to continue my trip, I pull the camera out and get to work.

My original intent is to simply shoot the silo. The lines and texture seem appropriate for this grey, sad day, and it's been a while since I zoomed in on agriculture. Only after I zoom in do I notice the gaggle of birds huddled on top of the silo, resting and sharing warmth before continuing their journey.

I guess I'm a lot like them, not destined to be here for very long, doing everything I can to be cozy, comfortable, and rested for the long journey ahead. We're all on some kind of journey, after all, and even if we don't know where our fellow travellers are headed, or what their story may be, it doesn't hurt to try to connect with them in some way before you all head your separate ways, never to cross paths again. Humans, birds, it's all the same.

In the overall scheme of things, it's just a bunch of dumb birds sitting on a building not far from the town where Avril Lavigne grew up. Meaning it shouldn't be worthy of a single photo, let alone additional thought. Yet for some strange reason I can't let it go.

That thought sticks with me for a while as I accelerate up to speed and put the silo, and its resting birds, in my rear-view. Because connections take many forms, and it's up to us whether or not we wish to make them.

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