Monroe Harbor 3/1/2012 7:45 a.m.

The days are getting longer, but a lack of sunshine is a reminder that winter is not over yet. Birds have begun singing and setting up territories in what can be attributed to a purely hormonal response to the longer days. My juvenile crow friends aren’t mature enough to have those kinds of longings, but I imagine they share the same sense of promise and preparation, as our part of the planet begins to wake up from a long sleep.

Instead of complaining about the lack of color diminished sunlight affords, I decided to embrace it and see what the world looks like without color.

The crows willingly lent themselves to my experiment…

and instead of finding their images lacking, to some extent, less was more.

For instance, I can appreciate the arrangement of this crow’s feather tracts more clearly than with the distraction of color.

I wonder why this crow’s posture looks more serious to me…

and this crow’s intelligence demands my wonder and awe.