In case you’re wondering what’s so mergeful about this photograph…
Well, these birds, the Alpine Chough were shot by me in Jungfraujoch/Top of Europe, Switzerland at an altitude of 11,700 feet.
What made it apt for this theme was the backdrop where snow, sky & mist merged to make it pretty hard to see beyond these birds.
I honoured these birds by featuring them in an earlier post –
All other entries for the challenge merge on this page.
Heidi by Johanna Spyri was my all time favourite book as a child.
I loved the story.
Over the childhood years I read the book 4 to 5 times.
The above picture is of my original book…rather worn out though it be.
Heidi & her life up in the Alps with her Grandfather have been etched in my memory.
Reading the book made me imagine her life in the mountains.
It was all so vivid.
I am grateful for reading which sharpened our imagination as kids.
Looking back I see the value of not having been brought up on internet – youtube, google, wikipedia.
Instant information on any topic.
We had to imagine while reading. Period.
A few years ago I got an opportunity to visit Switzerland & see the Alps.
Such an incredibly beautiful country.
Yet it was not very close to my own dramatic imagination of Heidi’s life up in the Swiss mountains.
I am thankful for what we did not have those days.
They were sweet black birds with yellow beaks against a sheer snowy white backdrop. I was seeing these birds for the first time & they were close in appearance to crows, but for their beaks. Found them interesting, as they calmly beheld tourists in the midst of the biting cold. And they had no problem being photographed either.
A bit of Google search indicates they are officially the Alpine Chough & are also known as the Yellow-Billed Chough.
Presenting the Happy Choughs of Jungfraujoch…
wingrish 