The Birds of Sugar Creek

photo courtesy Jim McCormac

What’s wrong with this picture?
It's a group shot, from the Sugar Creek field trip at the New River Birding and Nature Festival where I spent the last wonderful week...a picture of fellow-birders, gladdened by a very birdy morning, hungrily having taken in long, lavish looks at a prized warbler as we wove a slow path down this gravelly West Virginia mountain road.
I’m that speck in the background—that stooping, bending form that seems otherwise occupied, oblivious to the purpose of the day--diddling in the ditch, while birds drip from the trees all around.
But odd as it may seem, I capture it better that way.

Scanning the bank, with each plant I create a richer picture of where I am, define a habitat a bit more thoroughly in my mind. With birdsong overhead, my snapshot is complete—a perfect picture remembered with as much detail as one might find when they recall exactly where they were or what they were doing the day that Elvis died.

Cerulean Warbler
Early meadow rue was blooming.
Little wind chimes tinkle
on a morning wet with dew.

Hooded Warbler
Through the thick woods,
brilliant birdsong hangs in the air
like tiny bells of Solomon’s seal.

Kentucky Warbler
A tangled bank is heavily planted
with bellwort, Canada waterleaf,
and a quick glimpse of a bird.

American Redstart
Jack-in-the-pulpit, tall and proud,
stands at the berm surveying the scene,
guarding the nest.

The web

I could destroy in one blow
her fine house
of spun silk
woven with care
or leave it there
to capture the first light I might otherwise not see.

Apology

I meant to do my work today—
instead, ran following his bouncing flight,
one to another,
until, at the last, he left me,
watching,
as she tipped, ever carefully,
forward, forward, forward--
under the afternoon sun.

The work left waiting--
a petty pursuit,
measured against the truths revealed.

12-Spotted Skimmer, Libellula puchella, male

Eastern Pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis, male

Eastern Pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis, female

Ruby Meadowhawk, Sympetrum rubicundulum, male

Common Whitetail, Libellula lydia, male

Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, female

If there be gold dust and dragon’s wings,

what, then, of a dream?

(all photos enlarge)

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope:

A toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of colored glass or paper,
whose reflections produce changing patterns
that are visible through an eyehole when the tube is rotated.

In all the ways and places
a flower might rise, stand,
and turn face to the sun,
most marvelous are the very first.

Those bold of color and heart,
as if to say to all others waiting, hesitating,
“Lift your head, lean this way,
for on me shines the sun.”

Magnolia

Glory of the Snow, Chionodoxa forbesii

Star Magnolia, Magnolia stellata

Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica

Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis

Squill, Scilla sp.

Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis

Because the Cincinnati Nature Center has evolved, partially, from a large tract of land that was previously a home with extensive plantings, many non-native species adorn its sprawling grounds. Of those pictured above, only the Virginia Bluebells are native, with all others originating in Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia.

View more ABC Wednesdays here!

Listening to Spring

Spring whispers in a warm breeze,
backlit by afternoon sun,
that scurries through bare branches
and brushes past your cheek.

Spring murmurs in the morningsong,
filling the dimness of dawn
with overlapping voices
in a tapestry of sound.

And when fresh flowers
fall open to follow the sun,
it is as if spring has shouted.

The Spring Dance

Spring--
Day that dances,
little steps forward,
then dips quickly back
to carry its frosty blanket
into this new light.

A thin layer of ice forms on the surface of the pools each night, and disappears as the day warms and the sunshine finds its way into the woods. This morning, bubbles trapped beneath it, silver clusters, catch the first rays of light.

(all photos enlarge with click)

And in the Bower, Birds

Laid round bare shoulders, winter white,
a veil, with diamonds dripping,
she steps slowly forward.
All stand.
And in the bower, birds.

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An Appropriate Snow (SWF)

Snow on Queen Anne's Lace

Snow on Field

Sometimes snow just feels right.

In the same way that a thunderstorm
clears the heaviness from a summer day, only colder,

or the spot beneath your pillow
cools your cheek on a still, breezeless night, only fluffier,

or a bright new carpet without a step upon it
lights up the room you’ve looked at for years, only larger.

A man takes an oath for change
before a million sparkling faces standing as one.
And it feels like snow.

Snow

See more Skywatch here.

Visiting

Zig-zag Ice on Caesar Creek Lake

To see you now,
in wrinkles,
and gray, turned white around the edges,
resting here, alone,





while all have gone,
taking their smiles and laughter, home--




It is like looking upon the face of an old friend.

Summer Water from canoe
2008

Caesar Creek Lake is a flood control and recreation reservoir created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s. In the warmer months, the water level is high enough to make the lake a popular destination for fishermen and water enthusiasts. We canoe here often.

View more ABC Wednesdays here!

Transcendent (SWF)

I watched, as an ordinary day
Passed with such fire
Into darkness,
Saddened that it could not stay
for me to marvel longer,
Its brief glow,
even more beautiful in its absence,
To cause one stranger to turn to another and say,
“Did you see the sky last night?”

See more Skywatch here.