I love my field guides. Some were gifts, some I found in used bookstores, garage sales, dumpsters. They speak to me of different times and different places. Places and times where flocks of Passenger Pigeons darkened the air and where a Starling was a wondrous life-bird. They bring me close to landscapes I will never know, because of the distance in miles and the distance in years.
My favorite field guides have a suprising poetry in their descriptions of the natural world. Here is one:
Curly Grass Fern
Minute unfernlike plant
that looks like its name –
curly grass.
Almost imopossible to find
without lying flat
on the ground.Except in winter.
Broughton Cobb, A Field Guide to the Ferns and their Related Families of Northeastern and Central North America
Houghton Mifflin Company, copyright 1956.
What did you see this week? As before, I’ll download everything and make a hard copy. Someday, maybe, our observations will allow another generation to experience the beauty of the land we now know.
And again, I’ll go first:
In the back yard this week the bushtits began to join their families into the aggregate flocks that grace the feeders during the winter.
And yes, for you non-birdwatchers, there is a bird called “Bushtit”…
We have a couple of breeding pairs of quail roaming our neighborhood. You can here them call and occasionally see them roaming around.
Our next door neighbors have a small pond stocked with goldfish. One morning, a great blue heron came to feed there and flew up to the peak of our garage roof.
I wish there were more quail around here. They always make me smile.
when they are hurrying down the street.
A fresh drink of water.
A cool breeze.
And a swollen Escalante River after a thunderstorm.
With the wind billowing my white blouse,
I breathe with a clarity of spirit
I have not known
for months.
These expansive skies
in constant motion,
emotion,
move me.
(From An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams.)
Ah, Terry Tempest Williams – what a strong voice.
Should be:
REFUGE, An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams. It’s prose, but I opened it to a page at random and there was poetry.
But you’re so right about actual field guides. Speaking of “refuge,” this is from a birder book:
Truly pelagic birds
spend their lives
on the open ocean
and do not return to land–
even at night–
except during the breeding season,
when they seek out islands
and undisturbed headlands
for nesting.
She is such a phenomenal writer. I love “Refuge” but if I had to pick a favorte, it probably be “Red”.
Thanks for the recommendation. Refuge is the only one I’ve read. Now I’ll look for Red!
If you like nature writing that with a significant personal component, I have a couple more suggestions (apologies for continuing on with suggestions — I can’t help myself, I’m an obsessive-compulsive reader):
Rowing to latitude : journeys along the Arctic’s edge by Jill Fredston
Listening to whales : what the orcas have taught us by Alexandra Morton
Ooooo–thanks again.
Thanks for the suggestions here. THese are two I’ve not read.
And a four for your tagline.
And one more thing. . .the loud, two-note, unfamiliar bird call I heard last week? I haven’t heard it again. A passing soloist, apparently. I hope somewhere in its travels it finds a partner for duets, or a choir.
Was going to ask about your mystery bird. Hmm… 2 loud notes? do Vireos pass through?
Could be! The second note dropped a lot lower than the first note. Does that sound right?
yep.. THere were two in the park earlier this year, took me 6 bloody weeks before I saw them for an ID. The size of the whistle is way out of proportion to the size of the bird.
This is so cool. Vireos! I think I remember what they look like–yellowish, I believe?–but I’ll grab a bird book to remind myself, just in case I get lucky and hear it again.
I live in a heavily wooded area in Indiana and go for almost daily walks in the woods. This week, the wild turkey hatchlings have gotten big enough that they can travel with their mothers. This led to a couple of unplanned episodes of high drama when we (the dogs and I) stumbled across them on our walks. The mother immediately starts squawking and leading us away from the chicks. She’ll stay on the ground until she is sure she has lead us far enough away and then she’ll fly up in a tree. The dogs really aren’t that interested in the turkeys, fortunately, and so it is easy to get them to continue on the walk and leave the mother alone.
I’ve always wanted to sneak back to see how long it takes her to return to the chicks. But this seems to be a natural analog to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and so I never try.
I am originally from South Bend.
I don’t live in northern Indiana. I’m in Brown County about half-way between Bloomington and Columbus.
No turkeys here but I watched a pair of Killdeer do the same with a single chick last week. They worked in tandem, so one was near the chick (fuzzy ping-pong ball on stilts) most of the time.
I work for a small private University – heavily wooded and near a State Park.
We have lots of deer here – California coastal white tail I think. Well the deer love the wonderful landscaping on campus. It is an accepted part of life that the deer come and go as they please.
Well…in this lovely wooded garden area, Mom and her 2 babies – still with spots, strolled in for breakfast. The little ones couldn’t have been more than 2-2 1/2 feet tall. Bounding all around the grass and under brush.
A little later – same place – Mom and little ones were resting in the shade….
Too much awww for one day! Makes it hard to go back to work – I’d rather sit and watch the animals.
Maybe you could wander over to the Froggy Bottom Cafe today or some other Saturday and invite everybody to visit this series? I know some people. . .not cafe dwellers. . .wonder what non-political series are doing on a political blog. IMO, this kind of diary reminds us of what we’re fighting for. It’s great to advocate for the environment, but we’ll be better advocates if we actually get out in it–or at least read about its wonders and mysteries–now and then! You might even invite people to insert photos if they want to?
Thanks Kansas. Witnessing for the earth is the most political thing I do. As for selling my diary.. Maybe after a cup of coffee..
It’s funny how I keep going back up top to read the poem you created from the field guide. It’s haunting me. Reminds me of how, when life is busy and full, I can go blind and deaf to the quiet, invisible aspects of life that get lost in all the color and noise–unless I “lie on the ground” and make a point of paying attention to them. But then when life gets bare and wintry, suddenly I see them clearly, am glad they’re still there, and turn to them for solace in the barren landscape.
All that from a field guide! Goodness.