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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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catbird

July 17, 2010 by Dave Bonta

The dawn chorus is quieter now, and at least half-catbird. A squirrel carries a leafy twig through the treetops at sunrise like a flag.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, gray squirrel
July 7, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A phoebe’s spiraling dive ends with an audible snap of its bill. A catbird improvises from the lilac, switching branches after each line.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, lilac, phoebe
June 18, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A catbird mimics the wood thrush, call-and-response style, getting the phrasing right but little else. Venus fades into the dawn sky.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, Venus, wood thrush 1 Comment
May 1, 2010 by Dave Bonta

The buzz of a black-throated green warbler, a catbird’s brassy solo, the noodling of a red-eyed vireo: May comes in with a new soundtrack.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black-throated green warbler, catbird, red-eyed vireo 1 Comment
September 5, 2009 by Dave Bonta

From the rummaging of some small bird of passage, a shower of yellow walnut leaves into the yellow yard, the tall Solidago. A catbird mews.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, goldenrod
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
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 28, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The pasture rose in front of my wall bears two white blossoms: bindweed raising its flared trumpets to the white sky. The smell of rain.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bindweed, catbird, pasture rose
June 23, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The catbird sails in and out of the lilac without interrupting his stream of song. Oak leaves glossy as mirrors; the sky so blue it hurts.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, lilac, stream, tufted titmouse
June 17, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Breezy, overcast, a spit of rain—these reports never seem complete without the weather. The buzz of a hummingbird. A common yellowthroat.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, common yellowthroat, ruby-throated hummingbird
June 13, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Gray sky. The lilac catbird lands beside the porch to scold me, as if it had just become aware of my presence. Its young must’ve fledged.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, lilac
June 12, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The sky is pretending to be blue, but I don’t buy it. A hummingbird may land on a dead branch, but that’s the only green it’s going to get.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, ruby-throated hummingbird
June 5, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Towhee, robin, catbird, great-crested flycatcher: birdsongs sound more vivid in the rain, like jazz solos rising over a surf of applause.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, catbird, great-crested flycatcher, ruby-throated hummingbird, towhee
May 25, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Heavy traffic on the driveway: a baby bunny races back and forth, followed by a strolling pair of catbirds and a robin’s methodical hop.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, catbird
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On This Day

  • March 5, 2025
    Rain. The stone-wall chipmunk races across the yard and disappears into the woods. The rattle of my metal roofs drowns out everything but a train…
  • March 5, 2024
    Dripping at dawn has thickened into steady rain by the time I get out of the shower. The robins, cardinals, woodpeckers and wrens seem barely…
  • March 5, 2023
    Clouds beginning to clear by 8:00. A gray squirrel with a black walnut between her teeth is followed by three others through the treetops.
  • March 5, 2022
    A leaden sky at sunrise, but an hour later, the sun glimmers through thinning clouds. Cardinal and titmouse song. The smell of bare dirt.
  • March 5, 2021
    Sunny but cold. The woods-edge chipmunk scuttles back and forth. Tips of dead grasses hanging into the stream have new feet of ice.

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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