Sojourns

Swan song.

If we learn to read the birds — and their behaviors and vocalizations — through them, we can read the world at large. . . If we replace collision with connection, learn to read these details, feel at home, relax, and are respectful — ultimately the birds will yield to us the first rite of passage: a close encounter with an animal otherwise wary of our presence.

~ Jon Young, What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World

Can you figure out what this is?

It is a fine, fine day here on the Eastern Shore.  Even the birds agree.  Thousands of them are out and about and on the move.

Maybe this will help.

I walked out the door this morning and found the air filled with the sight and sound of blackbirds.  I wish I had the right words to describe the thunderous sound of all those wings when they first take flight, and the chatter that goes on when they are sitting in the trees or in the marsh.

There are a few red-winged blackbirds in this bunch.

I walked around in circles, following them from the woods near the cemetery to the marsh and back to the woods near the cemetery.  Eventually I became a statue sitting on the steps of the front porch, and the birds rewarded my stillness by spreading out over the front yard.

How do they keep from crashing into each other?

Ted Andrews, in his book “Animal Speak,” writes that when the blackbird comes into your life, “you will open to new surprises and to a new understanding of the forces of Nature as they begin to migrate into your life.”

On the move.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the language of birds.  Maybe it’s being in this place where so many birds spend the winter or stop by on their way Elsewhere during their spring and fall migrations.  Birds sing, call, mimic, chatter, and alert each other in a variety of ways.  I wonder, sometimes, what it is they talk about.  Do they have discussions about the crazy lady chasing them around with a camera?

The always elusive Blue Jay.

I don’t know if they grow used to me, or if they have pity on me.  Every now and then they allow me to get a good glimpse, and sometimes even a good shot.  Or maybe they do it just to get me to move on.

Chickadee acrobatics in the marsh.

Whatever the case, I feel so lucky to be able to spend time with birds.

Laughing Gull

There are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees, emanating from the mosses, seeping through the under currents of the soil, but you have to be willing to wait and receive.

~ John Hay, The Immortal Wilderness

The tree of life.  (Edited in Pixlr and Picmonkey.)

I reckon that’s it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch for today.  Thank you for stopping by and joining me on another ramble.  It is gorgeous here today.  The kind of day that should be spent outdoors.  Join me on the dock in a little while for sunset.  It’s bound to be good.

White-throated Sparrow in the marsh.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂