10 May 07
Morning Mudpie
I’ve planted okra
[dead fish my father said]
and corn and squash
in dung
[my nails are black]
and my friends are bracing
for the onslaught
of curcubitaceae
[he hated those too]
to come and
as I dipped a pointed pen
into walnut ink
this morning
a Swainson’s thrush
exhausted from a night of dodging
cellphone towers
slammed into the
[unwashed] window
and bounced into
the leeks
I wrapped it in
[I hoped] a premature
shroud and
hoped and
yes
!
it rose up
after a time
into the mulberry
where the Wilson’s warbler
and Bullock’s oriole
and black-headed grosbeak
wove a trio of
Spring
in the
Central
Valley.
Postscript, 1:48 pm, Thursday: a Swainson’s thrush just flew into my window at work. It seems fine, flew into the locust tree… I wish I knew a good way to stop them from doing this. I never wash the windows, so that’s not really the problem.
Previous: Best of Bloggery Next: Weekend: A Still Life
Oh the trauma of everyday life in the country. Glad it found more life.
To avoid birds flying into the window, its usually the same window, is to either draw the curtain, or hang something like a fan (open) in the window. It is mostly in the early morning this happens, in a certain light. It tends to be the first fledglings here ( probably being hunted by other birds to feed their babies…) in the spring that do this with us. Very upseting, but with this method it usually helps.
Beautiful posting for the early morning. Thanks. And with a happy ending, too.
I’ve heard that some people put black paper bird shapes in their window to prevent this… but I don’t know myself if it works.
It’s horrible when they hit, isn’t it? I remember hearing a loud “thwack!” once, and going out to find a huge, drifting clump of cardinal feathers, the bird itself nowhere to be seen.