and the bumbling fly buzzes against the window unsure of what its doing if it’s flying up or down living or dying regardless it finally sits at rest
A movement of white near the ground catches my eye Squinting I see that it’s a bird sitting on the ground But what bird? I don’t recognize the tail I slowly pull the binoculars of the wall
I scramble to get the glasses into focus before the bird moves on from it’s spot They are foggy so I quickly clean them off Focusing in I see the speckles on the back and wings A bit of a larger bird Still curious I watch Then it turns to the east And I see it’s bright yellow chest With a black V collar proudly displayed around it’s a neck A meadowlark!
I listen to it sing In between eating from the ground Then it walks and takes a few hops over near the bluebird house It sits on the tall grass
a house finch swoops down eating the few seeds that remain and off it goes to the west a morning dove makes it’s way over the field at a steady pace and earlier a very large hawk leapt from its perch high up in a tree soaring into the sky it went circling around then heading north
Looking out into the world Just as I do from inside the cabin Sitting and looking Just as I do It hops back down to lower ground, continues eating Disappearing behind the mounded grass Then flies up to the tall tree in the northwest corner
there’s the hovering bird a smaller hawk I think it quickly repeatedly flaps its wings staying in one place in the sky as it looks down what is it looking for? what does it see? hoping for food I’m sure it releases it’s hover and flies back to the tree
the hoverer returns back to its spot of hopefully prey back and forth over the field hovering its red tail spread wide I see through the binoculars a red tail hawk it must be
moving closer now still hovering it takes a short dive then returns back up high again and out of sight back in sight, swopping, hovering will it find what it’s looking for? is this an exciting part of being a bird? or feel does it feel like work? how hungry is it enduring so much hovering
The meadow lark returns Near the same mound of grass it left Now it flies over to the other bluebird house squatting the ground there Showing off it’s yellow chest Singing its gentle melody True music to my ears And the rusty bell rings outside As the wind shifts and moves about
The sky is clear now except for the grey clouds The activity ceases , birds are out of sight Only the song of the meadowlark goes on And the howling wind The ringing bell The sound of geese flying overhead As I sit and look out at the world The day continues on…
the red tail flashes in front of me dive bombing right in font of the window my eyes wide as I see it and the Prey as it barely escapes nearly getting caught right in front of my eyes and the little gray bird sits injured on the porch or perhaps petrified
after some time the bird does regain strength flying up from the porch to the feeder clinging tightly to the ledge it takes some seeds gathers its nourishment and courage and flies south
February 2020