A soft breeze is blowing on this first day of September and the birds are celebrating. There has been a veritable feast of bird behavior in the last half hour as I’ve been quietly observing from my screen tent. My Merlin app is engaged on the phone. In the last half hour, nineteen varieties have made themselves heard. Not a record, I’ve had more than thirty in that amount of time before, but a respectable showing.
The feisty hummingbirds are still with us. For the first time, I saw a little female divebomb a sparrow that got too close to the phlox that she was trying to take a drink from. It’s hard to imagine there would be much nectar in the little phlox flower, but that neon pink color may be too hard to ignore. She would get a much more satisfying drink from the brightly blooming zinneas, but then she’d have to share with the various visiting butterflies and bumblebees.
Many of the birds seem to be coming in pairs today. As I was watching two house finches vying for the small birdbath on the deck railing, I heard a sound to my left. A downy woodpecker had landed on the screen next to me! I’ve never seen one from this angle before. He was holding on and pecking at what seemed to be a tiny hummingbird feather caught there. Perhaps he thought it was an insect. I was thrilled by his proximity. In any case, I greeted him and he soon flew away.
It is one of those days that I can’t help but bring to mind Mary Oliver’s rule of life. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Paying attention in my own backyard astonishes me constantly. I think I could add a fourth instruction: “Know you are blessed.” For I do.
Dwelling in Presence 