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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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  • Monday December 21, 2020

Monday December 21, 2020

Dave Bonta December 21, 2020

Solstice. The porch is littered with scraps of paper from the old hornets’ nest—a prized spot for wrens to spend long winter nights.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bald-faced hornet, Carolina wren
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On this date

    May 19, 2021

    A nocturnal visitor has dug up four of my herbs, tunneling into the compost. Below the porch, a least flycatcher, handsome in his eye rings. …

    May 19, 2020

    Sunny and warm. Behind the screen of green leaves, a vulture's lazy drift. A hummingbird collides with a carpenter bee over the yard. …

    May 19, 2019

    Humid and warm—our first truly summer-like day. The wood pewee, who just returned yesterday, drawls his two-note song from the woods' edge. …

    May 19, 2016

    On a crystal-clear morning, the whinnying cry of a red-bellied woodpecker seems full of angst, and a jay's rasping call—pure frustration. …

    May 19, 2015

    A tiger swallowtail flies past in one direction, a cabbage white in another. I sit reading Rubén Darío until everything seems symbolic. …

    May 19, 2013

    Each bird I see has something in its beak: wren—a streamer of dried grass, chickadee—a seed, towhee—a bundle of stalks, grackle—a millipede. …

    May 19, 2012

    Two maple keys dangle in an old spiderweb underneath the porch railing, like uneaten remnants of some unfortunate winged creature. …

    May 19, 2011

    Phoebe in the barnyard, pewee in the woods. What is it about cleared land that turns a lilting refrain into a burden, a shrill work song? …

    May 19, 2010

    Cool and quiet—a thoroughly dull morning, I'm thinking. Just then a hen turkey lands in the yard with a clamor of wings and saunters off. …

    May 19, 2009

    Strong sun, and the air so clear, I can see the tiniest floating krill. A cranefly seems enormous—until a pileated woodpecker flops in. …

    May 19, 2008

    Birdcall like the chant of some demented sports fan: the yellow-billed cuckoo is back! The forest canopy must be full enough to skulk in. …

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Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

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