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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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American crow

August 20, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Another autumnal dawn. A screech owl trills from just inside the woods. Crows head past en route to an angry mob. The fluting of geese.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, Canada geese, dawn, screech owl
July 15, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Fog lingering into mid-morning. Whatever the crows are up to, it involves a lot of begging sounds. The wild garlic heads are beginning to split.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, fog, wild garlic
June 17, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Sun through thin clouds. A silent crow skims the treetops where a cuckoo coos. Someone’s offsprings beg for more breakfast.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, clouds, yellow-billed cuckoo
March 8, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Moon low in the west, as bright as a searchlight. Two silent crows fly over the house. The clouds’ bellies begin to glow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, clouds, moon, sunrise 1 Comment
February 13, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The western ridge turns barn-red with sunrise. As it fades to gold, down in the hollow a mob of crows starts up, jeering, denouncing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, sunrise
January 13, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Treetops rock and sway as the dawn sky shuffles patches of darkness and patches of light. The inevitable crow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, clouds, dawn, wind 1 Comment
January 8, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Heavy gray sky. A screech owl’s descending quaver. And then it’s sunrise, according to my phone and the crows.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, screech owl, sunrise
December 31, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A mottled white sky with crows to the north and ravens croaking off to the south. The snowpack is soft and granular, absorbing sound.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, raven, snow
December 29, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Sunrise stains the western ridge barn-red as the dawn chorus of crows rises to a cacophony. High in a walnut tree, a squirrel is licking its genitals.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, black walnut, gray squirrel, sunrise
December 28, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Thin clouds at sunrise with the blue just visible, like faded jeans. A crow has a brief exchange with his echo.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, clouds, sunrise
December 2, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The frosted meadow glitters in the sun. A scrabbling of squirrel claws on bark. Off to the south, a raven croaks; to the north, crows.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, frost, gray squirrel, raven 1 Comment
November 24, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The sun finally clears the ridgetop at 8:00. A crow at the compost has an exchange with a raven high overhead: caw caw caw ARK ARK ARK etc.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, raven, sunrise
November 7, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Clear and cooler. A female cardinal flies out of a barberry bush, her bill red as the berries. Crows argue over fresh additions to the compost.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, barberry, cardinal
October 13, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Rain tapering off by mid morning. The sun even emerges for one or two seconds, setting off a crow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, rain
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On This Day

  • November 11, 2025
    A bitter wind has brought the first, thin snowfall. I open my folding seat cushion and find a yellow leaf nestled like a letter in an envelope.
  • November 11, 2024
    A clearing wind at dawn, after some much-needed rain. A mourning dove sits placidly on a swaying branch, facing east.
  • November 11, 2023
    A few patches of frost in the yard as the sun clears the ridgetop. Juncos move through the rambling old lilac, its last few leaves faded nearly to yellow.
  • November 11, 2022
    Steady drumming of rain on the porch roof. Dark trunks disappearing into fog. A classic November day.
  • November 11, 2021
    Two degrees above freezing, with the sun reduced to a bright smudge by a thin wash of cloud. Juncos and a nuthatch forage at the woods’ edge.

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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