tufted titmouse – The Morning Porch/Patio

Tuesday December 10, 2019

Dave Bonta December 10, 2019

A break in the rain. In the barberry bush, a titmouse shakes himself all over. A squirrel pauses on a tulip tree limb to scratch his belly.

Dave Bonta March 5, 2019

Sunny and cold. A titmouse call takes me back to that time one nested outside my window and woke me each morning like an elfin rooster.

Dave Bonta January 17, 2019

Gloomy, but the birds seem excited, perhaps sensing an approaching storm. A titmouse fleeing a fight lands on a maple limb red with fungus.

Dave Bonta March 3, 2018

Titmouse, chickadee, wren. I squint into the sun. The bitter wind rattles the cover of the magazine beside me—which, I notice, is Rattle.

Dave Bonta February 14, 2018

Ash-gray sky and an inversion layer making it sound as if the highway runs straight through the hollow. Above the din, a titmouse keens.

Dave Bonta February 2, 2018

The monotonous chant of a tufted titmouse. Clouds move in and seed the wind with small, round snowflakes, giving it another way to bite.

Dave Bonta December 28, 2017

I can hear a titmouse tapping at a sunflower seed 100 feet away. A truck drives up the unplowed road—the squeak of the snow under its tires.

Dave Bonta November 7, 2017

Mid-morning and the yard is seething with birds—chickadees, sparrows, juncos, nuthatches, titmice—foraging and singing despite the sleet.

Dave Bonta March 24, 2017 1

Warm sun and an inversion layer bringing traffic noise from over the ridge. Cardinals and titmice compete with the whine of truck tires.

Dave Bonta March 11, 2017

Bitter wind. A small privet bush bends under the weight of six juncos, then two titmice, then three waxwings, each feasting on its berries.