Birds in the feeder…

The Underworld
by Sharon Bryan

When I lived in the foothills
birds flocked to the feeder:

house finches, goldfinches,
skyblue lazuli buntings,

impeccably dressed chickadees,
sparrows in work clothes, even

hummingbirds fastforwarding
through the trees. Some of them

disappeared after a week, headed
north, I thought, with the sun.

But the first cool day
they were back, then gone,

then back, more reliable
than weathermen, and I realized

they hadn’t gone north at all,
but up the mountain, as invisible

to me as if they had flown
a thousand miles, yet in reality

just out of sight, out of reach—
maybe at the end of our lives

the world lifts that slightly
away from us, and returns once

or twice to see if we’ve refilled
the feeder, if we still remember it,

or if we’ve taken leave
of our senses altogether.

Sharon Bryan, “The Underworld” from Sharp Stars. © 2009 by Sharon Bryan. Used with permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd.,

Definition #205 Carpenter Bees

Carpenter Bee

deck invader seeks

dominance o’er goldfinch, doves,

hummingbirds, woodpeckers!

Definition #33 Gravitational Field

finding home with wings
size matters; patience matters
sight, scent, spice of life!

Spectograms

Yesterday was the perfect listening day on the deck.
We found these bird song recordings and Don played them on the iPhone. Our goldfinch visitors answered, setting up a chorus of crows and squirrels.
Earlier, I noticed that the hummingbird sounded like a loud bumble Bee. Every Spring, I hear her calling for a mate and then she births a baby in the birdhouse on the upper deck, away from the squirrels and cats.

Please try the spectograms on the website below:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=1059