I went out for a walk on Easter morning, and all the houses in the nice Boulder neighborhoods had their windows open wide with the scent of French Toast wafting out. Inside families gathered around their dining room tables, special occasion content, cutting into their holiday breakfasts with forks and knives. I was planning onContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “French Whimbrel””
Tag Archives: Nine Books
Latest from Book of Birds: “A Cardinal in Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush”
Near where I grew up in Ohio there was a nature center where you could buy a small bag of seeds, pour a few in your palm, and wait for Black-Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice to land and eat them right out of your hand. All you hadta do was stand there and hold yourContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “A Cardinal in Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush””
Latest from Book of Birds: “The Deranged Grackle”
For a couple days in October there were a lot of Common Grackles on the big tree outside our building. The shiny, purple-headed, yellow-eyed blackbirds were on every branch making their typical cacophony of squeaky gate calls. As it was migration season, they soon all vanished… except for the deranged one. The Deranged Grackle hadContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “The Deranged Grackle””
Latest from Book of Birds: “What Are You Seeing?”
Black-capped Chickadee abundant North American bird in all four seasons easily heard “chickadee dee dee” “hee hoo” easily seen white breast gray wings black head always right in front of you everyone everyday witnesses this bird by accident it does not require expertise persistence or good luck like everything else we value I was onContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “What Are You Seeing?””
Latest from Book of Birds: “Summer Tanager Montgomery”
I’m gonna name my first daughter after the prettiest bird in Arizona ‘Summer Tanager’ in the state’s surprisingly lush riparian areas among green leaf cottonwoods pink sandstone rocks and silver flowing streams Tanagers will fly BRIGHT RED like Valentine-heart red like strawberry Fruit Roll-Up red like Crayola 8-pack red the full potential of a colorContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “Summer Tanager Montgomery””
Latest from Book of Birds: “We Wanted It to Be Something Else”
We went out on the trail hoping to find birds we’d never found before. “What if we see a California Condor?” I said. “What if we see a Bohemian Waxwing?” she said. “What if we see an Orange Bishop?” “Wait, what’s that one again?” “It’s the one from the documentary about things only found inContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “We Wanted It to Be Something Else””
Latest from Book of Birds: “Song Sparrow”
When I was a kid my doctor dad always carried a Song Sparrow in his pocket. And it would sing out beautifully whenever someone was in need of help. Tweet Tweet Tweet Triiilll! It would go, and then my dad would hafta rush off to help them no matter what. We could be anywhere whenContinue reading “Latest from Book of Birds: “Song Sparrow””
Latest from Book of Nature: “Dead Birding Expert”
A lady who guided weekly birding groups in Northern Arizona died recently. I went out with her group several times last summer and learned a lot about the local birds. Like how the Common Yellowthroat goes ‘witchity-witchity,’ how the western Yellow-billed Cuckoo can be found in riparian habitats, and how the L’s are pronounced likeContinue reading “Latest from Book of Nature: “Dead Birding Expert””
Latest from Book of Nature: “4 Shitty iPhone Pictures of the Moon”
it was a full moon in the summer wilderness and the magic hadta be captured somehow my arms and hands were too small, too far away my vision and mind too impermanent, too unshare-able but I did have my iPhone 6 so I pointed it to the sky and pressed the button the photo was…Continue reading “Latest from Book of Nature: “4 Shitty iPhone Pictures of the Moon””
Latest from Book of Nature: “Fisherman with a Beer”
fisherman with a beer smoking a cigarette listening to Nirvana scaring all the birds fisherman with a beer smoking a cigarette listening to Nirvana scaring all the birders fisherman with a beer smoking a cigarette experiencing nirvana enlightening all the birds Kurt Cobain with a guitar shooting heroin scolding the fisherman for scaring all theContinue reading “Latest from Book of Nature: “Fisherman with a Beer””
Jonathan Bluebird Montgomery 