This is Not a Bird
Ceci n’est pas un oiseau. Le Retour (Return), by René Magritte, in the Magritte Museum in Brussels.
(All images, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright John Degen, 2023. I took the photos of the artwork, but the art itself belongs to its own copyright holders.)
This posting and newsletter has been delayed by a business trip to Belgium and the (nowadays, it seems) inevitable bout with Covid 19 that follows any extended contact with crowded airports and trans-Atlantic travel.
Two pieces of good news coming out of all that:
1. My illness was mild, and went away fairly quickly; and,
2. I gathered a number of Belgian birds onto my life list!
First, a bit about Brussels. I was in the Belgian capital the week of September 11, and enjoyed the very best weather of the European late-summer. Not sweltering as England had been in June, and with only the barest sprinkling of rain. I felt chronically under-styled in this most fashionable of cities, but that’s what you get when you dress like a birder in the moments work does not demand a tie. I ate frites and a street waffle (oh, my goodness), and found a couple of hours to wander through the exquisite René Magritte collection in the jumble of national galleries downtown.
A Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica), dressed appropriately formal, behind the European Parliament.
I attended a series of meetings with international writing and publishing colleagues to discuss the global state of library lending of books, and how authors are compensated for the marvelous free access public libraries provide. I won’t go too much into that here — though it is important behind-the-scenes business of which most lovers of books are blissfully unaware. Suffice it to say the meetings went very well, I managed to check in with rarely seen international colleagues, and came away with renewed purpose for the work I do.
And then, of course, there were the birds.
The wildly patterned Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) is in most of the waterways of Brussels, many banded, so they seem to be citizens.
Brussels is blessed with a series of parks that range from formally ornamental to rambling and wild. The Belgians love their green space and water features, and judging by their appearance throughout all the public and gallery art I admired, Belgians love their birds. Bird depictions were everywhere — so much so, it quickly became a game for me to spot the bird in the artwork.
One of many depictions of the famous Le Chat comic character, by Phillippe Geluck in the Parc de Bruxelles. Note the small bird making life difficult for Le Chat.
A dove and an owl depicted in bold relief by Marnix D'Haveloose outside a Belgian library.
Let’s return to the great Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Famous for his depictions of faceless everymen, bowler hats, apples and pipes, Magritte had a few things to say about birds as well, as you can see from the image topping this post. Le Retour (Return) depicts a dove returning to its nest full of eggs. Or does it. Where is the dove? It is nothing more than the negative space between the nest-world at night and a bright daytime sky.
If it’s the fully feathered variety of bird you’re looking for, Magritte can do that as well, though they may not be doing typical birdlike things.
Magritte’s Le Voleur, 1967 is a bit more conventional, though one does imagine the eagle stretching out and swallowing the hot air balloon whole.
Magritte’s Dieu n'est pas un saint (God is not a saint) depicts a bird absconding with a shoe… as one does.
Brussels is a bit of dual world city itself. Very business-like with the bustle of European Parliament work always in the background, and yet extraordinarily relaxed as well, with streetcorner cafés and bars filled with patrons at most times in good weather. And then, of course, there are the parks. My thanks to the front-desk staff at my hotel for directing me first to the Bois de la Cambre, a sprawling Central Park-like ramble that starts at the end of Avenue Louise, and just keeps going until you are well and good outside of the city itself.
The small central lake in the middle of the Bois de la Cambre is home to a beer hall on an island, and many a Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea).
Instead of sleeping off jetlag on my first morning, I strolled the Bois with my eyes and ears open, and my camera at the ready. I was not disappointed. In all, Brussels gifted me with nine new birds for my Life List (probably could have spotted more, but I was there to work, after all), including the Common Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) and the Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla). I also finally managed a photo of the raucous and swift-swooping Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameria). I had heard these parakeets in London as well at the beginning of summer, but they were always too fast for the lens.
A couple of Rose-ringed parakeets take a very brief break from screeching about the place.
This charmingly ridiculous Eurasian moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) used its comical big green feet to run right up to me as I strolled the Bois.
My advice for potential visitors to Brussels:
Absolutely see the crowded and touristy old town with its narrow streets and cobblestones, but make sure you also get up the hill and wander the many parks dotted through the more businessy and residential parts of the city. Definitely, have a stroll through the Bois de la Cambre. Many charming birds, dogs, people, and an island beer garden await.
Bring home chocolate; not Covid.