Sunday, April 19, 2015

Color on the wing

A flash of blue, a hint of rust--an eastern bluebird emerges from a box alongside the highway and disappears into the nearby woods. I wonder whether the bird sees me too, whether its eye is drawn to the flash of blue (but no hint of rust) that is my car zooming down the highway.

A splash of green and red outside my living-room window--a hummingbird, the first of the season, looking for the feeder that we haven't taken time to hang out there just yet. We hear and obey: time to brew some nectar.

Every glance out the window lights on color: a horde of goldfinches feeding on thistle, a fat yellow bee buzzing around the shrubs, a brown-headed cowbird coordinating nicely with the reddish-brown spots on the brown thrasher's breast. The dead brown ground is greening up. Time to get out and mow! Hope the noise doesn't blow the birds away.

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