Saturday, April 14, 2007

Hungry Birds, Snow in Spring

Toni gave me some bird seed that she wasn't going to use and I filled up my own feeders with it. I had seen a lot of finches and chickadees at my neighbor's feeder, which is hanging from my lilac bush by the deck. I thought that it wouldn't be much of a reach for their tiny brains to notice my offerings just a few feet away. I had hardly closed the door when the birds flocked to my feeders. What a wonderful sight to have so many birds out there. The trees are just loaded with them, taking turns diving for the food.

I used the telephoto lens to take the picture through my dirty window. The house in the background looks very close, but isn't. The red in the front is a geranium bloom on the sill. The snow on the ground is the result of several Spring storms that are assaulting the area as if to make up for the short Winter. It is like a battle between the seasons, with warm sunny days followed by snow and wind.
David came back yesterday from his winter in Florida. It was wonderful to see him and we had dinner together. Once he arrives with the Spring, it seems almost as if he never left. I miss him when he's not here, though, and his absence seems long. He heralds the beginning of a new season that is as different from winter as fire is from ice. Eastport's cycle of life is comfortingly predictable. It is extreme at its opposite poles, asking us year-round residents to go along with such changes of climate and activity that we could be travelling to different counties. It is we who are stationary, though, while the world moves. Nowhere in the country does the revolution of the earth seem more obvious, nowhere does it give more richness and variety, as it does here. We are delighted with the first snow, and with the first robin equally.

No comments: