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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Carolina wren

October 21, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A Carolina wren trills from the springhouse attic window, and a winter wren answers from under a pile of brush with ten seconds of song.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, springhouse, winter wren
July 22, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Gray and misty. A common yellowthroat keeps caroling back to a Carolina wren, until I have trouble remembering which “witchedy” is which.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, common yellowthroat
July 15, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Bluer than blue sky, a perfect morning, and all I hear is a robin tut-tutting and a Carolina wren going Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, Carolina wren
July 14, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The lone survivor of the yellow jacket holocaust under the porch floor two nights ago slowly circles my legs. My foot freezes in mid-tap.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren
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
September 27, 2008 by Dave Bonta

First one, then a second Carolina wren pops out from under the eaves, perches in the fretwork for a second, and flies off into the fog.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, fog
August 27, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Carolina wrens counter-singing from the springhouse, her Zzzzit! simultaneous with his TeakettleTeakettleTeakettle: the sound of the steam.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, springhouse
August 1, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Close your eyes and it could be any season: a Carolina wren; a scolding nuthatch; twittering finches; a loud, hoarse cough up in the woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, white-breasted nuthatch
July 14, 2008 by Dave Bonta

A Carolina wren stops by and pours out fifteen seconds of pure exuberance—just enough to remind me how much I’ve been missing. (Stay! Nest!)

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren
December 28, 2007 by Dave Bonta

The stream this morning is full of auguries, such as: “If you want to be master of all you survey, live in a ravine.” Carolina wren song.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, stream
December 6, 2007 by Dave Bonta

Clear and very cold. I hear squirrel teeth on walnut shell. The Carolina wren’s happiness motor turns over once, twice, then putts to life.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, gray squirrel
November 9, 2007 by Dave Bonta

A doe trailed by a scrawny 5-point buck. The soundtrack includes a train, a raven, geese, a wren, and a low-flying plane with a wide eraser.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, Carolina wren, plane, raven, train, white-tailed deer
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On This Day

  • October 9, 2025
    Cold, clear, and quiet except for the crow in the road when I came out, who took several, labored wingbeats to reach his high-pitched cry.
  • October 9, 2024
    Clear and still cold at mid-morning. Sunlight flashes through thinning leaves shuffled by the wind, the sun’s own color more a yell than a yellow.
  • October 9, 2023
    An hour before dawn, the crescent moon hangs just above the ridge, with Venus blazing like a campfire through the trees. It’s cold. An inversion layer brings the sound of every engine waking in the valley.
  • October 9, 2022
    One degree above freezing at sunrise. A breeze reshuffles the walnut leaves on the porch. I find small patches of frost up by the barn.
  • October 9, 2021
    Fifteen minutes after sunrise, the sky darkens again. The fierce yet querulous cries of a Cooper’s hawk skimming the treetops.

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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