Spring voices

[vaneramos]

Arriving at Dad's house Thursday afternoon I opened the car door to the vernal cry of a red-winged blackbird. It was soul tonic. Next morning their songs were bursting against glass amid swarms of solar photons. On the hydro line outside my bedroom window, a grackle fanned his wings and tail, arched glossy shoulders, screeched and flashed a yellow eye at his shadowy beloved in a nearby cedar.

Late one night I was standing in the bathroom when I heard the loud, unmistakeable call of a great horned owl through the closed window. (It is similar to the barred owl call, which we hear at the cottage every summer, but more measured, less goofy.) I went downstairs to the sliding porch door and heard it there again, so close to the house it hummed in my bones. I opened and slipped outside under starlit sky, peering from tree to tree for a large, dark figure, but in vain. I've never seen one wild. My presence must have spooked it, because it didn't sound again. While Orion sank in the west, a waning moon lay low in the southeast over Lake Erie.

Returning home with many things to recount—the sound of ice schools hovering along the beach, reunion with my camera, an irritating novel, stories from an unexpected source about the place where I grew up, an interminable theme pervading my dreams, an oppressive mood—I find the voices of birds most salient.

Hello, how are you?

Comments

[abendstille.livejournal.com]

wonderful spring voices! thanks for writing about them, Van!

[inishglora.livejournal.com]

Vibrant descriptions. :o)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. How happy I was to hear them.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of swarms of solar photons.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked that. It felt like a living tide.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've heard a somewhat distant mockingbird on a couple of recent mornings. I heard a great horned owl in Gloucester once, many years ago (I think we don't have enough continuous or dense woods for owls as a general thing). Perhaps when we go up to Gloucester for a visit later today we'll hear red-winged blackbirds and maybe even grackles.

I'm ready for spring, whether or not it's ready for me.

[paulintoronto.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Van. I hope that it is sunny and springlike where you are.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Paul. It was sunny, now it's snowing.

xo

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Me too. Hope you saw some nice birds.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I'm ready for spring, too.

[eniastoa.livejournal.com]

amid swarms of solar photons ... that put a smile on my face, thanks!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Heh, you're welcome. :-)