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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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great-crested flycatcher

May 7, 2014 by Dave Bonta

Two catbirds tangle in the air above the stream. A hummingbird dive-bombs a gnatcatcher. The first great-crested flycatcher holds forth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, gnatcatcher, great-crested flycatcher, ruby-throated hummingbird, stream 1 Comment
May 4, 2010 by Dave Bonta

Great-crested flycatcher in the bare branches of a locust, silhouetted against the sky. A jet appears: no trail, just a gleaming splinter.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags great-crested flycatcher 1 Comment
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 2, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Two Jurassic-like things, both of them “great”: the call of a great-crested flycatcher, and seconds later, a great blue heron in flight.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags great blue heron, great-crested flycatcher
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On This Day

  • December 15, 2024
    Gray and still, except for the creek’s trickle. A squirrel dangles from a low branch of the springhouse tulip tree, trying in vain to tear…
  • December 15, 2023
    One degree above freezing as the tall pines fill with sun. Two crows emerge from the woods, yelling about some old deer guts that must…
  • December 15, 2021
    Patchy frost: the myrtle leaves that are dusted with it versus those that just have white edging. A chickadee is getting the gang together.
  • December 15, 2020
    Cold and quiet at sunrise. I walk to the ridgetop, clutching my thermos mug. Snow lingers in dips and hollows where the sun can’t reach.
  • December 15, 2019
    The alarm call of a Carolina wren spreads to other wrens, other birds, a growing agitation that for a second flutters even in my chest.

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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