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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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raven

January 8, 2014 by Dave Bonta

A flat white sky; no wind. A pair of ravens fly low over the house, their croaks echoing off the ridge. The wrens chitter back and forth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, raven 2 Comments
January 3, 2014 by Dave Bonta

The croak of a raven followed by a tree popping in the cold, loud as a gunshot. A chickadee flits through the branches of a birch, singing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black birch, black-capped chickadee, cold, raven 1 Comment
October 8, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Clear and cold. The leaves at the end of the porch have gathered into a dense crowd, as if for warmth. A raven’s distant croak.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven 2 Comments
September 18, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Loud wingbeats as the shadow of a raven crosses the yard. A buck gingerly lowers his antlered head to the stream.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven, stream, white-tailed deer 1 Comment
December 28, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Fire sirens. A wren’s burble. In a tree at the woods’ edge, two crows jeering a raven fall silent when it flies right over their heads.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, Carolina wren, raven, sirens
December 26, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Has the sky been this gray all month, looking white only because there was no snow for comparison? A pair of ravens fly low over the trees.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven, snow
November 24, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Snowflakes swirl past the porch; the trees twist and sway. High, thin notes of a white-throated sparrow. A raven croaks twice.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven, snow, white-throated sparrow, wind 2 Comments
October 18, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Four crows around the houses are voicing loud displeasure at something or other. I hear bemusement in the croak of a raven high overhead.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, raven
September 25, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Four bluebirds take turns checking out the empty flicker hole in the dead elm—a winter nest site, maybe? A raven flies past, croaking.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bluebird, elm, raven 2 Comments
August 28, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Cool and clear except for a few scraps of cloud and a pair of ravens high overhead, their hollow, metallic croaks like steampunk crows.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven
July 26, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The yark, yark of ravens skimming the trees, the low cloud ceiling just above. Crushing humidity. Vegetation still drips from a dawn storm.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven, thunderstorm 1 Comment
July 17, 2012 by Dave Bonta

An enormous horsefly patrols the porch railing, gray and golden hairs shining in the sun. The faint croaks of a raven somewhere to the west.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags horsefly, raven
February 7, 2012February 7, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The deep, soulful croak of a raven high above the ridge, side by side with its mate, heading east. Far behind them, a rabble of crows.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, raven 1 Comment
December 25, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Cloudless at sunrise, and the yard a-glitter with frost. It’s dead silent, save for the stream’s gurgle and a raven croaking high overhead.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags frost, raven, stream, sunrise
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On This Day

  • September 28, 2025
    Mist dissipating into blue. The walnut trees on the north side of the house are now nearly bare, even as the one on the south side is still more green than yellow. The sun briefly blazes through a new hole in the hillside canopy.
  • September 28, 2024
    Before daybreak, the crooning and snarling of raccoons up in the woods. In the silent aftermath, something large and dead crashes down.
  • September 28, 2023
    Clear and cold, with sound out of the east: the rumble and squeal of a slow freight train. Jays jeer. A wren puts the kettle on.
  • September 28, 2022
    Overcast, windy and cold at dawn. Soft thuds as the black walnut tree releases its ordnance onto the road.
  • September 28, 2021
    Thunderstorm at dawn; I rush through my shower so I can watch the rain. With each lightning flash, raindrops falling from the eaves become momentary suns.

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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