On the side of Beth's house, built on top of a wreath, a house finch nest with tiny baby birds.
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Swallows are abundant, even in downtown Lawrence. Hawks are also commonly seen this time of year.
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It looked like it was going to rain so I cut my walk on the wetlands short. I stopped to get birdseed, and it was raining by then. By the time I drove home, the rain was torrential. I had to wait in my car five minutes before going inside, and I still got wet just in those 30 seconds from car to front door.
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A bird with yellow markings I didn't see long enough to identify. Some kind of warbler? Also, a reddish sparrow (or something). I got a good long look at them, as there were several on the path and nearby bushes, but they didn't look like anything on my bird app. There was some kind of cormorant (or something) in a tree. It looked somewhat like a crow, but with a much longer neck. Not being able to identify birds, or making erroneous identifications, is an inevitable part of the process. I can embrace my ignorance because it simply is information about how much I know, or don't.
2 comments:
Warblers always remind me of Juliana Spahr.
"We learned and we loved the black sandshell, the ash, the american
bittern, the harelip sucker, the yellow bullhead, the beech,
the great blue heron, the dobsonfly larva, the water penny
larva, the birch, the redhead, the white catspaw, the elephant
ear, the buckeye ... the warbler ... "
"Gentle now white bass, predaceous diving beetle, hawthorn, scud,
salamander mussel, hazelnut, warbler, mapleleaf, american
eel, hemlock, speckled chub,
don't add to heartache."
But I really wish I knew how to recognize them in the world. It's just a word association for me. How much richer my life would be if that whole poem came to me looking at birds!
I'm going to use that one for my ornithology project, which I have no idea what will entail yet.
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