This morning I got to work early so I could take a walk around our beautiful, park-like campus, which might as well be a bird sanctuary. I first saw a young male mallard with a gorgeous teal-green head, waddling in a shallow stream, occasionally hopping up onto flat rocks and emitting a stream of bubbly quacks to punctuate the experience. Further on, I saw a great blue heron crouched low on the rocky bank of the most remote of our five ponds. He turned away from the water, apparently finding something of interest in the surrounding tall grass, despite the fact that the resident barrage of swifts or swallows - I dont know which - resented his stately promenade and buzzed him constantly, forcing him to retract his otherwise snaky neck in a comical, hunkered-down way. Unruffled, he behaved like a perfect gentleman throughout his ordeal. Next, on the adjacent pond, our Resident Magnificence: an immense trumpeter swan, gleaming white, gliding across the water like a regal barge in total oblivion to the sound of shattering glass caused by the demolition of a nearby building. At one time he had a mate who either disappeared or died, and now, sadly, hell never have another. But he has a friend, a small white duck of the barnyard variety who preens on the bank in a humble, comfortable way. The last of my discoveries, near the end of my walk, is a giant red tailed hawk, looking a bit out of place flapping and flitting through a stand of trees. He might have been hunting for bluebirds, but I hope he didnt get any. All the bluebirds that have eluded me my whole life decided to wait until my late 50s to flock in unbelievable numbers only a five-minute stroll from my office door.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 01:39:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015