The Morning Porch

March 11, 2013 by Dave Bonta

At first light, the wild cries of tundra swans pour down through the clouds. Then silence. The rumbling labor of an east-bound freight.

June 6, 2025
Sunrise hidden by fog, but already there’s a background buzz of periodical cicadas. A cerulean warbler sings at the woods’ edge, as usual, long after the wood thrush has lapsed into silence.
June 6, 2024
Low clouds trailing drizzle settle into the trees, where a wood thrush and a wood pewee are calling. From the wet meadow, an indigo bunting’s bone-dry song.
June 6, 2023
A bleary, bloodshot sun in an ash-white sky. Pileated woodpeckers foraging just inside the woods’ edge cackle like sacred clowns.
June 6, 2022
Insects drift back and forth in the cool air (45F/7C). An animal track through the dew-drenched yard heads straight under the house.
June 6, 2021
A gypsy moth caterpillar lowers itself on a silk thread almost to the ground, then reverses course and begins inching and thrashing back up.