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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Plummer’s Hollow

July 13, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The doe with twins pauses to graze a multiflora rose. The lead fawn follows suit, and I want to cheer. Invasive-eating culture transmitted!

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, multiflora rose
July 12, 2009 by Dave Bonta

High, deliberate notes of a blue-headed vireo: April revisited. A slow floodwater mosquito dies between the heels of my palms.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags blue-headed vireo, mosquito
July 11, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Pursued by its parent onto a dead branch, a vireo fledgling: smaller and paler, like a ghost who must be fed. The wide-eyed fleabane below.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
July 10, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A wood thrush sings at dawn; the trees glow faintly pink. What is it about the 3rd-quarter moon that makes it look especially edible?

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags phoebe, wood thrush
April 15, 2013July 9, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Thin fog in the corner of the field. A Cooper’s hawk fledgling responds to its parent, a hot cry, a knife cry, a glossy cry, a soul cry.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Cooper's hawk, fog, hawks
July 8, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Garlic tops still point at the ground like dysfunctional minarets. Goldfinches weave through the canopy, circling the thistle-spined sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American goldfinch, wild garlic
July 7, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Another cool morning, but the haze portends heat. The wind carries a sweetness I can’t identify. Slow and careful footsteps up in the woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
July 6, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A catbird dive-bombs a small buck with stubby velvet antlers. He runs toward a doe who chases him back, her fawn dancing along behind.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird

On the steep slope below my parents…

July 5, 2009 by Dave Bonta

On the steep slope below my parents’ house, a doe sweeps the deerflies from her twin fawns’ spotted backs with her long, rough tongue.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags deer, deerflies, flies
July 4, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Chipping sparrows feed a fledgling in the grass next to the wall, making much too much noise—even a deer would nosh on such a fine morsel.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipping sparrow, deer
July 3, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A low, leaden sky. Leaves blow backwards. A robin on a dead branch at the edge of the yard turns to face the woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin
July 2, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Sitting in great discomfort due to a sprained back, I regard a deer-stripped black raspberry cane, naked except for its thorns.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags deer
July 1, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Everything drips; I don’t notice that the rain has stopped until the sun comes out. A burst of song from phoebe, catbird and Carolina wren.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, catbird, phoebe
June 30, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Just inside the woods’ edge, three mushrooms weather the downpour, umbrellas for no one. The soaked bark of a maple turns patchy blue.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow 1 Comment
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On This Day

  • April 12, 2025
    Cold and heavily overcast. A gray squirrel emerges from the woods like a ghost, seeming to float over the rain-darkened leaf duff, fur the color…
  • April 12, 2024
    Wind throbs in the treetops; the birdcall app thinks it’s a drumming grouse. Juncos twitter from the lilac, which has just burst its buds—a green…
  • April 12, 2023
    Two phoebes in a singing contest at dawn. A warm breeze. The half-moon settles in a tall pine.
  • April 12, 2022
    Warm rain. Phoebe and robin drown out the night chant of peepers. All the daffodils’ cups have turned bottoms-up.
  • April 12, 2021
    Overcast and cool. Up on the ridge, two or three crows scold a Cooper’s hawk: high-pitched whines, a gargling rattle. The hawk zips off.

See all...

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Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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