Garden to Taylor to Chesnut March 30-31, 2019

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for the birds

Looking around noticing movement

Seeing something alive there fluttering

Watching carefully to discern the details

That's how birders walk in the woods.

I take photos hoping to catch the moment

Beautiful feathers displayed in good light

Perched as if posed among the lovely leaves

A glimpse of perfection seen for a second or two.

If you go to the same place again and again

Each time is different what you will find

An almost magical unexpected surprise awaits

Rewarding the ones with eyes and ears open.

Sometimes in spring when songs are in the air

You may watch the courtship dancers making mate choices

You may see hidden away nests under construction

You may hear the nestling chicks calling to their parents.

Sometimes only the most common sightings can be found

The ones we call the loyal birds that stay all year round

Overlooked perhaps taken for granted and ignored

Though no less special if you trouble to study them.

Sometimes the migrants passing through delight us

Putting on a show appearing everywhere at once

Then all too soon disappearing leaving us behind

Unless we feel the pull and follow them where they go.

Birds are wary keeping their distance from us

Successful survivors evolved from the dinosaurs

Inhabitants of this world long before we humans

Arrived bringing habitat loss and climate change.

There are species in decline but not all is lost

As many are adapting to the Anthropocene

Finding food and nest sites in urban environs

Protected and helped by their many defenders.

Honeymoon Island March 29, 2019

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Brooker Creek March 28, 2019

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Phillippe to John Chesnut March 27, 2019

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