Click on the images to see them larger.Midway through my bicycle ride this morning a flock of tiny sparrows reminded me of my insignificance and my unimportance to them unless I was willing to buy their attention. As I sat on the terrace of the coffee shop at the corner of Mission Boulevard and Grand Avenue, dozens of the little birds perched patiently all over low shrubs near the table where I sat alone. They ignored me altogether... until I went back into the shop to get a bagel. The minute I came back through the door carrying the small bag with my bagel, they became my closest friends. They lifted from the shrubs as if choreographed and settled around me; some perched on the backs of chairs; some settled on the patio floor near my feet; and half a dozen especially bold sparrows dropped right onto the table... even before I opened the bag, they obviously knew there was something in it that would make delicious crumbs.

I got my camera out of my bike bag, made crumbs of the bagel, and got my pictures...