Cedar waxwing.
I have a potted plant on my back deck. It’s tall and leafy and has a spray of yellow flowers. I didn’t put it there. It grew on its own. It’s a goldenrod.
Potted plant.
Sometimes I see my world as one great garden, pruned and presented for my own personal enjoyment. The warmth, the humidity, the blustery summer air atop a coastal hill—it’s just what I was looking for. The cedar waxwing poses on an upper twig in its exotic plumage precisely as I pass by, just so I can grab a photographic portrait to post right here.
I’m reminded of this observation by comedian Steven Wright: “I have a large sea shell collection… which I keep scattered on beaches across the world. Maybe you’ve seen it.” I like to think he wasn’t kidding.
Today I got to listen to my vast collection of the music of crickets. I heard their trills, their cheeps, the soft sounds of the subtle-voiced varieties, the jarring songs of the loud ones. It was lovely.
This happened in afternoon, because I spent most of the day at my desk. But I did get a nice bike ride in—and an antic little flock of my pet laughing gulls accompanied me up Route 1 above Clam Cove. And not long after, Jack and I strolled up one of our favorite properties, Beech Hill. That’s where I listened to the symphony of crickets and took the waxwing’s photo. We also visited our secret blackberry crop—I ate sixteen plump berries again today but saved the rest for later—and grabbed a few blueberries from our private patch along the edge of the eastern field.
Heard my friend flicker for the second straight day. I missed my pet catbirds, though, and the yellowthroats were feeling shy. But I got to see one of my tree swallows for the first time in weeks. And I played hide-and-seek for a while with the sparrows up there.
Blackberry crop.
Then we returned to the house we live in beneath my quiet, stately oak grove. Where, only a minute ago, from the deck, under my collection of winking stars, I heard a single acorn drop and bounce across the parking lot. It timed its fall for only my ears to hear.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:45 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. American goldfinch (voice)
2. Cedar waxwing
3. American crow
4. Northern flicker (voice)
5. Savannah sparrow
6. Tree swallow
7. Eastern towhee (voice)
8. Song sparrow
9. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
Elsewhere
10. House sparrow
11. Herring gull
12. Laughing gull
13. Northern cardinal
Haze and hills.
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, eastern towhee, herring gull, house sparrow, laughing gull, northern cardinal, northern flicker, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tree swallow
