Birds

Winging, winging, winging. What bird am I? I like the image of a falcon. A small raptor. So small compared to an eagle or even an owl. Hardly bigger than its prey. But so fast. So Fast in flight. Like a small jet in the air, beyond winging. Simply being the movement, the unseen movement, faster than the human eye can detect readily. That is what I see.

Or a brown little wren or thrush. Building a nest, borrowing the items needed to build a little home. Doing the necessaries, taking care of business unobtrusively. Humble.

Or a woodpecker. Bright color, perhaps, just a little red flash on the head. Not very big, respectively. But so loud, when the pounding begins. Such a noise for such a small little bird.

I remember when I was very young and we had just moved to Georgia. The forests of North Dekalb were still thick with birds and wildlife and we might find a large snapping turtle in the street or crawfish in the creeks or a rabbit in a hole in the backyard. One morning, the whole house awoke to hear a sharp pounding on the house. It sounded like someone was taking a baseball bat and rapping sharply on the house. We ran downstairs and threw open the back door onto the wooden deck. We looked up to see a large woodpecker, a Pileated Woodpecker, beating on the fresh wood of our house. So large and pretty. Such a ruckus. But pretty cool. Then it was gone. Never back again.

I saw a bald eagle on the beach at Naples, eating the remnants of a red snapper in the sand. Not many people believed us. We were on the beach early in the morning. I saw bald eagles in Alaska. They are plentiful there. Very majestic until they swoop down to eat the entrails of the fish we caught. Perhaps they have a French taste in cuisine. Entrails.

I have always liked birds. I love the colors. Even the browns and dark colors of the little wrens, sparrows and thrushes. A Brown Thrasher with its rusty coat and spotted vest. A good state bird. A very business-like bird. Not your usual cardinal or meadowlark, but not ostentatious like a pelican or condor. Just a nice sizeable bird, its nest set in a bush on the property line of your house. It certainly goes along with the concept of "moderation" shown on the state seal.

Bird talk.