Indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, robins

Indigo Bunting, painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Even though there are lovelier birds than robins here, it can be dramatic to watch robins hunt and feed.    They are so very thorough.

A robin captured a fresh worm in her bill.  She hauled the wriggler across the hot pavement.  Two bitty steps pulling her cargo, then a rest.  Two more bitty steps.  Progress was slow but steady as she made her way from one side of the road to the other.  Halfway there, the worm broke in two.  This did not stop her from clipping the fragment in her bill and pulling it a quarter inch at a time until she got the worm to the other side then gently with the most delicate of manners she ate him tidbit by tidbit.  But before she tackled the eating of the worm she'd successfully carried to the grass, she returned to the hot pavement where the rest of the worm had begun to show signs of life.

Scarlet Tanager, photo by Terry Sohl

Again just as she did with the first half, the robin pulled the writher by her a bill a quarter inch at a time until he joined up with the other portion.

photo by Ryan Bushby

Did the two halves greet each other at their reunion?   Were they glad to see each other?  I know nothing of worm communication.  Now it was time for the feast.  She ate a dainty snatch at a time, did not gulp or grind.  She chewed slowly and swallowed silently as the best brought up of us do.  When the worm was a manageable size, she flew off with it in her bill to her nest to share with the rest of her family.

In the country

Waking up to the sound of birds, to the sight of a forest, to the smell of fresh air, is more than restorative, it seems necessary.  I think of what it would be like if I were in the city right now, at 7:30 AM.  The sound of the men setting up their construction, the subway under my feet,  cars, trucks, taxis, horns honking, the smell of the heat and ozone, diesel fuel particulate accumulating on my window sill.

There are trucks laboring their way up hill in the woods to build a new development somewhere.

But in the city, I guess what we don't have here in the country, is lots and lots of people with lots and lots of needs.  They need to eat so there are restaurants on every corner, a grocery store every few blocks.  They need to get dressed, and live somewhere, more shops, apartment buildings reaching the sky.  They need to get from place to place, so there are subways and buses and taxis and roads and traffic lights.  They need to use the toilet and their sinks and their bathtubs so there are sewer lines. They need to read at night so there is electricity.  They need to cool themselves so there are air conditioners and fans and the electrical grid is amazing.

Here where there are not as many people,  there are birds, lots of trees to house them and give them food. The squirrels do not beg from me as they do in Central Park.