Saturday, May 11, 2013

All the birds are full of business.

bird singing
Image source: Retrographix

The nights here have been cool and I have been sleeping with the bedroom window wide open. In the mornings, the birds are up before I am and I awake to their cheerful songs. This morning's chorus reminded me of the passage celebrating the month of May in The Shape of a Year by Jean Hersey:

Every morning a bluebird perches among the apple blossoms that cover the tree thick as popcorn. At dusk a thrush sings from down the valley, and the little warblers and 'witchety' birds squeak along the brook. Now and again a robin puffs with pride as he struts across the green grass, head cocked, listening for a worm. 

All the birds are full of business. Leave a length of yarn or string on the terrace and in an hour it is gone. The responsibilities of householding are uppermost. We keep watch to see who is building where. The phoebes are settling over the door to the shop. At one point several feet of nylon line trailed down from the nest they were building  I thought someone might inadvertently catch this and pull the carefully made structure apart so I cut it off where it dangled. I should have had more confidence in the phoebe, who knew exactly what she was doing. By night the remaining loose end had been woven up into the nest. Had she counted on the part I took off? How often we human beings interfere where we have no business -- and help in areas where help is not needed,

4 comments:

  1. Lovely quote. I wake up in the mornings to robins, chickadees, and finches. My favorites are the black-capped chickadees.

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    1. Lark, I am sure there are cute little chickadees somewhere around here but not in my yard. Maybe they like a more suburban habitat. They are the sweetest looking birds, aren't they.

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  2. The beginning of the passage you quoted reminded me of our house in Massachusetts. There was a very old apple tree near the house and several crab apples behind it. As soon as they bloomed, we could expect to hear and see the lovely Baltimore Orioles as they returned from migration.

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    1. Hi Joan. Well Jean Hersey's home was in Connecticut so you all lived in the same area and shared the same seasonal delights I am sure.

      I love her comment on the white apple blossoms -'thick as popcorn.'

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