1. Hummingbirds
The Turks Cap has only barely begun to bloom in the backyard, the red flowers peeking out from the one plant by the Pine tree. I didn’t figure that we’d see Hummingbirds much until we had more of those red blossoms, but yesterday there was one flitting between the wild Sunflowers.
I didn’t know Hummingbirds do yellow.
2. Owls
In the evening after sunset, just before evening sets in, when the dusky light is still enough that you can make out the branches in the trees…Â For the last three nights, right at that time, I’ve been sitting outside waiting for the Owls to come.
There’s a family that has roosted a couple houses down across the street, the male in one Owl house, the female and the babies in another. This year there seem to be four babies, and they’ve fledged and come into our trees for their evening breakfast.
I’ve been sitting in the driveway the last three nights waiting for them to show up. The babies squeak/squawk from the branches with greater intensity when one of the parents swoops into the canopy of the Oak or Ash with some poor critter hanging from its beak.
I whistle at them, which makes them turn and look at me with great concentration, or which makes them swoop in for a closer look, or which makes them do the Owl head-bobble thing trying to figure out why that thing down there on the driveway is singing an Owl A-song.
3. Why?
So why the birds?
I’d like to say that I don’t know, that it’s just like when I ramble on about the flowers or blue sky or the sunshine or… I’d like to say that it’s something insignificant. But that’s not true.
There’s more to it, because the news today is … well … oh boy. And I can’t talk about it without getting louder and louder. Â I hear it in myself. I know that the fair and industrious Trudy hears it, and although she tolerates it, it can’t be pleasant. And so, well, I just need to keep my mouth shut. It won’t change anything to talk about it, anyway.
So I’ll sit here and talk about birds as the 20th Century fades away and the grim reality of the 21st begins to sink in deep.
Birds. I’ll talk about birds.