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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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screech owl

September 26, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Overcast and damp. Anxious notes from a nuthatch following the crash of a rotten limb up in the woods where a screech owl had been trilling.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags screech owl, white-breasted nuthatch
September 2, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Crystal-clear and cool. A screech owl quavers in answer to a distant trill as sun floods the treetops. Autumn is here.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags screech owl
August 3, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Cool and very humid. A thin cloud forms in the treetops, shot through with sun. A screech owl trills.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, screech owl
July 28, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Another cool morning for a day forecast to be hot. A Carolina wren lands on the railing and cocks his head at me. A screech owl calls in the distance.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, screech owl
February 3, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Cold and still. Just as the half-moon‘s light begins to fade, a screech owl trills from the pines, as if to prolong the night.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dawn, screech owl, white pines
December 31, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The cloud ceiling briefly switches to faint pastels: sunrise. One yammering nuthatch and, from down in the hollow, a screech owl’s soft trill.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, screech owl, sunrise, white-breasted nuthatch 2 Comments
September 9, 2023 by Dave Bonta

A whippoorwill interrupted by a screech owl falls silent after three attempts to steal back the stage. When the owl falls silent, a peeper calls.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags screech owl, spring peepers, whippoorwill
August 23, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Cold at dawn, with the lightest of breezes bringing sounds from the east—mostly the limestone quarry’s dull roar. A screech owl trills. The clouds go pink.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, dawn, quarry, screech owl, sunrise
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
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
November 29, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Heavily overcast at sunrise; only the ground glows a faint pink, thick with rain-slick leaves. A screech owl trills.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, screech owl, sunrise
February 15, 2022 by Dave Bonta

I love these frigid mornings with their gift of silence. The stream gurgling out from under my yard. Nuthatches. Wren. A distant screech owl.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, cold, screech owl, white-breasted nuthatch
October 14, 2021 by Dave Bonta

Just past sunrise. Ground fog in the meadow full of white-throated sparrows. A screech owl trills from the powerline.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, screech owl, white-throated sparrow
September 19, 2021 by Dave Bonta

5:30. A pair of barred owls exchange queries as the sky begins to brighten. A screech owl’s quaver. Sudden loud wingbeats in the meadow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags barred owl, dawn, screech owl
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On This Day

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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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