A bright blue morning. It takes the drone of a plane to draw my attention to a new bird call: the first blue-headed vireo of the year.
The Carolina wren goes from querulous...
The Carolina wren goes from querulous chirps to full-throated denunciations from the top of the dead cherry tree. But the snow continues.
Tagged Carolina wren, cherry tree, snow
4 Comments
Cold, gray and windy. The peony sprouts...
Cold, gray and windy. The peony sprouts, up early this year, are still at the point of just untwisting their skinny red fists.
The top half of a dead elm behind the...
The top half of a dead elm behind the house crashes down in the wind. I remember the porcupine in its topmost branch like a crown of thorns.
Tagged elm, porcupine, wind
3 Comments
Red maple limbs laden with keys tremble...
Red maple limbs laden with keys tremble from a pell-mell squirrel. I hear tapping on the storm door, open it and a bee flies out.
Tagged bumblebees, gray squirrel, red maple
2 Comments
A downy woodpecker has found a loud...
A downy woodpecker has found a loud limb to hammer. When the din stops, he’s with a female. That brief cloacal kiss that passes for sex.
Tagged black locust, downy woodpecker
Comments Off
Clear and cold at sunrise. A nuthatch...
Clear and cold at sunrise. A nuthatch on the dark side of the tall tulip poplar reverses course and ascends into the sunlit crown.
Tagged nuthatch, sunrise, tulip tree
Comments Off
I can’t stop looking at the vivid...
I can’t stop looking at the vivid green lilac, translucent in the mid-morning sun. In the woods beyond, the laurel is a blaze of gloss.
Tagged lilac, mountain laurel
2 Comments
A rabbit dashes around the yard, chased...
A rabbit dashes around the yard, chased by another. It feints a departure and sneaks back, ears orange in the sun and veined like leaves.
Tagged cottontail
Comments Off
An old strand of caterpillar silk at...
An old strand of caterpillar silk at the wood’s edge shimmers in the sun. A crow keeps saying something urgent in four syllables.
Tagged caterpillars, crows
2 Comments
