Thursday January 28, 2021

Dave Bonta January 28, 2021

Bitter cold. Clouds hide the sunrise, but the crows still herald it. The squirrels appear to be staying in their nests.

A goldfinch lands on a hummingbird feeder and looks all around for seeds. The butterfly known as a red-spotted purple rests on a folding chair. …

When the neighbors' rooster finally stops crowing, the incessant singing of the red-eyed vireo seems as hushed as the murmur of a stream. …

Weak sunlight: a milkiness in the sky like the film that forms over the eyes of the dead. A lone fawn runs bleating through the forest. …

Cool and clearing. Three deer chase through the meadow, coats sleek with dew, bounding high to glimpse each other through the tall weeds. …

Spots of red in the garden: old leaves on the evening primroses, new leaves on the witch hazel, which seems to be having a prolonged spring. …

The first beebalm's forked, scarlet tongues. Nearby on a still-green bergamot bud, a netwing beetle's antennae test the sudden sunlight. …

Beside the springhouse, the twittering zoom of a hummingbird's courtship dive: from sunlight into cattail shadows and back. Tanager song. …

A squirrel is making a nest in a black locust with small branches it bites off a little higher up, plundering the roof to build the floor. …

The Morning Porch