Nature and Birds in Southern Ontario, Canada
The ringmaster, flicker, was not available to start the show.
All of a sudden, there were at least half a dozen squirrels, maybe more, racing through the treetops. Flying through the branches without a trapeze.
They were either playing or fighting; I’m not sure which. And when it was all over, I wasn’t sure whether to clap, laugh, or tell them to behave themselves.
There is a mallard duck that has a nest in the dense flowery growth of our garden.
As a result, we have gone out and bought a manual lawnmower, (so as not to disturb her).
I’m taking exquisite pride in using it; like a grandmother tiptoeing around a baby sleeping in a nursery.
I’d have to say my favourite bird song is the chickadee’s “fee bee, fee bee.”
There is something about the touching simplicity of it that goes straight to the soul.
There is also the exquisite beauty of the cardinal’s rapturous song and I’ve heard that the nightingale is not bad….
I saw a male cardinal feeding his wife a piece of suet that he found this morning for breakfast. And I saw a common grackle taking a piece of suet to the bird bath and eating it with water. He thought, “I don’t know what this junk is, but it is likely to get stuck in my throat and kill me if I don’t wash it down with water.”
The male cardinal wins for ‘best husband’ and the common grackle wins for ‘smartest bird I saw this morning’.
It was a lovely drenching rain all night. When I went to see the vegetable garden in the morning, the tomato plants looked up at me and said, “Now that was a real watering. What’s up with the watering can?”
I was out early watering the garden and heard the beautiful, plaintive, flute-like notes of the mourning doves.
It reminded me of how affectionate the mourning doves are with each other and that it is now June, the month of weddings.
I remembered a quote from ‘Abdu’l-Baha about marriage and about doves:
The baby robin stood on the edge of the birdbath hesitating. He knew that he wanted to go in the water, but he was scared because it was his first time.
It reminded me of the time I was in the second grade and my beloved school teacher pushed me into the pool during a field trip when I didn’t want to go in. I didn’t like her after that.
At six in the morning, the geese are honking, the seagulls are laughing, and the squirrels are chasing each other in the treetops.
If you wake up early enough, you can catch the full moon over the lilacs and hear the symphony of the mourning doves, robins and sparrows.
Walking to the end of the land in Long Beach Conservation Area, I was looking up at the trees and all of a sudden, I saw to my complete shock and wonderment, a bald eagle land in the treetops.
“Ya Baha’u’llah! Ya Baha’u’llah! Ya Baha’u’llah! I said, (being a Baha’i).
It was the first time I had seen a bald eagle in person and it was a majestic moment.
P.S. The seagulls were harassing him. I don’t know why.
