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The
staring and defiant
EAGLE EYES OF TEXAS
are upon you
One in a Series of Photo Essays |
| Perched over doors
of buildings – is it a coincidence that these are the very buildings (banks, courthouses
and post offices) where we take care of our most personal business? |
Dignity
on the old Ft. Worth Post Office
TE Photo |
| In
a state that often gets press for things un-natural; there’s still a lot of nature
to be found in Texas. Ornithologically-speaking,
the Lone Star State is beyond rich.
First, we have the ultimate songster
for the state bird. But then again, something like eight other states claim the
Mockingbird. For the exotic, we’ve got scissor-tailed flycatchers, caracaras,
spoonbills, and blue herons. Let’s hear other states claim those!
Brownsville has its famed
wild parrots and Corpus
Christi has its air-force of white pelicans. Rockport
has its whooping cranes and every highway overpass between Houston
and San Antonio has its springtime
colony of swifts. Mentone and
Sanderson are overrun with roadrunners
and from Beaumont to Fort
Davis, everyone and anyone who can mix sugar and water is treated to the antics
of migrating hummingbirds. Thanks to the people of Wills
Point and Habitat for Ornithology, bluebirds of happiness migrating through
NE Texas are positively delirious.
All of the aforementioned species share two basic traits (except grackles
and seagulls).
They either want to be alone or want to flock together
with their like-feathered brethren.
Grackles and seagulls just want
to be fed.
But
the species featured in this particular gallery are different. They don’t flock
together (except on the McLennan
County Courthouse dome) and they don’t want to be fed. They don’t catch flies
or run roads. They are not the subject of birdwatchers and indeed – (here’s our
point) - they are watching us!
Perched over doors of buildings – is it
a coincidence that these are the very buildings (banks, courthouses and post offices)
where we take care of our most personal business?
The unblinking eyes
of these sandstone seers, limestone voyeurs and marble eavesdroppers are in every
county of the state. While a complete census has yet to be made, we’re beginning
an inventory starting with this very page. |
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McKinney's
First National Bank Building
"...cast stone and a gilded eagle."
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
A
watchful eye on the Federal Courthouse in Austin
TE photo |
Tradition
in Beaumont
TE photo,
July 2003 |
Eagle
or Winged Platypus?
Jefferson County's Sub-courthouse in Port
Arthur
TE photo |
Sitting
on a fasces - same eagle as above straight on - Port
Arthur
TE photo, June 2003 |
Overly-saturated
Eagle on the Runge, Texas Former
Post Office
TE photo, 2001 |
Pretending
to look distracted on the Taylor, Texas
Post Office
TE photo, 2005 |
Zig
Zag Deco on Waco's
Mvnicipal Bvilding
TE photo, 2004 | |
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