Faex Avium |

I have always been fascinated by poo – the processes of its becoming, its powers to encourage life, and the endless jokes about the subject told by four-year-old boys, and by those boys who have not left their childhoods entirely behind. Over the years, I’ve also enjoyed reading about poo. Some of my favourite books have been Nicola Davies’ Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable, Josh Richman & Anish Sheth’s What’s Your Poo Telling You?, Susan Goodman’s Truth about Poop, and Jeannette Rowe’s Whose Poo? (There are more titles here for those wanting to follow up this line of research). Then, sometime in 2016, I noticed that a friend of mine started posting the occasional photo of bird poo on her Facebook feed. I was immediately struck by them. They spoke to me of simplicity, of randomness, of good humour, and of temporality. They highlighted again for me the enormous disparity between my own environmental footprint and that of other creatures. They also invited me to better notice a part of my everyday landscape, especially things like footpaths, objects that are otherwise quite uninteresting. Captured, I started doing the same – taking photos of bird poo. For a few weeks or so, it became something of an obsession, one that resulted in missed trains and lateness to meetings, interesting discussions with curious onlookers wondering what the Methuselah I was doing with my phone so close to the ground, and much amusement with children. It’s been fun. While beauty may well be in the eye of the beholder, joy should be shared. So, below are some of the images I’ve captured, shared in the hope that others may enjoy them too, or at least get a good giggle out of one or two of them.

Shoes with Straps

The Gathering of the Clans

Fireball

Wild Goose Blues

Battlefield

Elegance

Night Cat

Pelecanus

Cockroach

Garden Shrimp

After Bruegel’s Blind Leading the Blind

All the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy

Salmon

Senator James Paterson

The Place of the Skull

Dash

Angel Fish Parting Ways

Heidegger

Cirque du Soleil

Angler

Spill

Satellite 18

Harry on his Nimbus 2000

Sandhill Crane

Horseshoe Crab

Singing Bird 2

Marlin

Rabbit

Dandelion, Stripped

Anselm Kiefer

Summit

Colonial Ties

Horizon

Waterfall

Seed

Comet

Setting Up Camp

Fox

Robin

Sunset

Nebular System

Bat and Quokka

Leather Jacket

Porthole

Shrimp

Lung

Ostrich Running

Cracking the Whip

Incoming Storm

Dancing Ogórek

Banksy

Towards the Ancient City

Sakuran

Brachyura

Speech Bubble

Eruption

Wandering Egret

Alison Preparing the Duck

Excited

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed

Bull Terrier

Seahorse

Harbour Islands

Moa Startled by the Sound of a Frog, near Rawiri Bay

Jabba

Intersections

Termite Rejoicing at the End of a Long Election Season

Marker

Hummingbird

Swing the Baby

Signature

Witch Travel

Desert Shades

Balloon

Drunk Conductor

Hosanna

Herons

Sapling

Bilateral Amputee, Juggling

Phophatidylserine Receptor

Melbourne Cup, 1930

Cat Looking

Web

Mountaineer

Grover

Natalie

I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall …