The Morning Porch

December 4, 2017 by Dave Bonta

Late morning: the sun finally comes out. The cedar tree beside the house chirps and shakes with juncos, which soon spill out into the weeds.

June 15, 2024
Deep blue sky—the dry high is here. In the broad sunbeam that warms my chest I watch the slow drift of mites and motes.
June 15, 2023
Unseasonably cool at daybreak. Underneath the excited back-and-forth of a redstart and an indigo bunting, the soft calls of a gnatcatcher.
June 15, 2022
The sun clears the trees sooner than seems possible, and the gnatcatcher’s extreme excitement is not a good sign. A sapsucker calls.
June 15, 2021
Cool and breezy, with the clearest air in weeks. A redstart slowly circles the house, singing his sneeze-like song.
June 15, 2020
A spicebush swallowtail careens through the yard, where bracken fronds nod in three directions. A downy woodpecker upside-down on a limb.