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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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blue-gray gnatcatcher

May 30, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Clear and cool. A gnatcatcher scoops a caterpillar off a walnut leaf and swipes it against a branch three times before swallowing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, blue-gray gnatcatcher
April 13, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The sun eases out of the clouds. A gnatcatcher is flying sorties from atop the lilac, which has just burst its buds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags blue-gray gnatcatcher, clouds, lilac
July 21, 2021 by Dave Bonta

A few drops of rain. A gnatcatcher fluttering up from the weeds to a walnut tree swerves to—I assume—catch a gnat.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, blue-gray gnatcatcher, rain
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On This Day

  • September 1, 2025
    Chickadee scold-calls join an agitated red squirrel above the springhouse. Nothing stirs in the deep weeds. The sun burrows into a cloud.
  • September 1, 2024
    Clear and cool. I watch a gray squirrel descend a tree, search its memory/the ground for a walnut, dig it up, and find a secluded spot under the lilac to chisel it open.
  • September 1, 2023
    Clear and cold. I hear a hummingbird below the porch, buzzing from one orange jewelweed goblet to the next. The sun must be up.
  • September 1, 2022
    Sunny and cool. A hummingbird moves slowly along a porch rafter flicking the fast whip of her tongue, testing, tasting.
  • September 1, 2021
    Rain thickens toward mid-morning as the ex-hurricane moves through. One cricket still calls from the shelter of peony leaves.

See all...

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.

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

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