Sunday, October 28, 2007
Atypical Behavior.
Today has been an interesting avian day.
First, were the birds at the window. Large, speckled black birds, with solid colored wings, flapping and trashing around the window. There is a bird box on the house in that vicinity, but it's a swallow nest, and what bird is crazy enough to be checking out a nest at the end of October?
I watched more than one of them swoop in, do the backwards flap thing, Whoa! let's get out of here - or Whoa! what is THAT? Several were sitting on the ridgeline of the garage. And then they flew down, in a flock, to the grass. The flock behavior indicated to me that they were starlings - but I'd never SEEN starlings up that close. I would believe them to be brainless enough to try mating and nest building in the fall, but by the time I could call someone else to confirm that I was not hallucinating, they had left.
But the next avian experience was even stranger. As I walked out for the newspaper, I saw a heron flying by. Not too unusual, as there are so many wet places nearby, and I have seen several heron (and what IS the plural of that word?). But it landed on a roof! So I was perhaps 30 feet away from it. I don't believe I've ever seen one that close. All gray, long beak, long legs, huge wings, the telltale "stick" look. But on a ridgeline? A dark line at the crown, but no flowing feathers. However, I'd have sworn it was a heron, were it not for the location. And then, when it decided I was watching too carefully, it flew off - into a TREE. Not to catch frogs, into a tree.
I waited for a while, but it stayed there. And so I went off to get the newspaper. When I returned, at least 5 minutes later, it was STILL in the tree. Maybe it's a stork, I thought, or a crane, or anything else.
So when I got home, I checked in my trusty book, and really, it was a heron. But on a house? On a tree?
Not on a house, not on a tree, I do not understand him, Sam, you see.
Bob says they do roost in trees.
Never before on my watch.
Today has been an interesting avian day.
First, were the birds at the window. Large, speckled black birds, with solid colored wings, flapping and trashing around the window. There is a bird box on the house in that vicinity, but it's a swallow nest, and what bird is crazy enough to be checking out a nest at the end of October?
I watched more than one of them swoop in, do the backwards flap thing, Whoa! let's get out of here - or Whoa! what is THAT? Several were sitting on the ridgeline of the garage. And then they flew down, in a flock, to the grass. The flock behavior indicated to me that they were starlings - but I'd never SEEN starlings up that close. I would believe them to be brainless enough to try mating and nest building in the fall, but by the time I could call someone else to confirm that I was not hallucinating, they had left.
But the next avian experience was even stranger. As I walked out for the newspaper, I saw a heron flying by. Not too unusual, as there are so many wet places nearby, and I have seen several heron (and what IS the plural of that word?). But it landed on a roof! So I was perhaps 30 feet away from it. I don't believe I've ever seen one that close. All gray, long beak, long legs, huge wings, the telltale "stick" look. But on a ridgeline? A dark line at the crown, but no flowing feathers. However, I'd have sworn it was a heron, were it not for the location. And then, when it decided I was watching too carefully, it flew off - into a TREE. Not to catch frogs, into a tree.
I waited for a while, but it stayed there. And so I went off to get the newspaper. When I returned, at least 5 minutes later, it was STILL in the tree. Maybe it's a stork, I thought, or a crane, or anything else.
So when I got home, I checked in my trusty book, and really, it was a heron. But on a house? On a tree?
Not on a house, not on a tree, I do not understand him, Sam, you see.
Bob says they do roost in trees.
Never before on my watch.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
It was that time between rainstorms, when we had driven out of one and were not yet into the next, where you can see the small clear space of clouds in the sky, with the one behind you dropping out its bottom, and the one ahead waiting to do so. The air is washed clean, and the 5 PM light at a slant enhances every shade of every color. We drove by, picking out every autumnal red or orange or gold or black, Soren explaining that this was the best time of year because it brings us so many surprises. And at that moment, the red ivy climbing up the white wall, as if the season had painted in rough oils on the cement, it could have been true.
