Northern Cardinal

The day dawns bright with hope for man and bird. The man craves the sunlight and vacant, miraculous sky; the bird craves the promise of the nest. This morning satiates both cravings. This morning brings the voices of blue jay, chickadee, mourning dove, phoebe, hairy woodpecker, crow, starling, an angry red squirrel, and a love-sick redbird—a cardinal delivering sweet music from high in a leafless oak tree.

Not many hours before, the bleatings of a lone woodcock rose from the moonshadows in a soggy patch across the road.

Bird Report is a discursive, intermittent record of what's outside my window in Rockport, Maine, USA (44°08'N latitude, 69°06'W longitude). —Brian Willson