Visitors

Thursday, October 23, 2013

I am sitting in my office, south and west-facing windows. It is mid-morning and the sun is raising my spirits, even though a north wind reminds me of Chicago, temperature in the 40’s.

Something moves in the south yard. I look up and see two mature does, their luxuriant deep-tan fur gleaming in the light, head butting at my thistle feeder. They bump it, sniff it, try to gnaw it. “If only the dang, dangling tube would stay still,” one doe said.* They touch noses. One doe rises up on her hind hooves, leaning against the clothes pole and staring intently at the feeder. I reach for my binoculars and get a close-up view of the ladies. They must see a reflection, for they turn towards me and stare, then run like hell across the down-sloped meadow and into the woods.

Yesterday a red-headed woodpecker landed on the feeder and hammered at it, its beak too big to extract seed through the tiny slits. It walked up, down, sideways, upside down on the bottom, all the moves designed to penetrate the feeder. Then flew in a downy woodpecker, also landing on the feeder, and a Keystone Cops chase ensued, the redhead chasing the downy. The goldfinches and chickadees for whom the feeder tolls, lined the branches of the red-and-orange-poison ivy leaf-decorated maple tree, waiting for the intruders to give up.

Other visitors: seven wild turkeys, standing under the feeders and—dare I say it?—hopefully looking up; a blue racer snake, straight and flat in the grass, waiting for a careless songbird to land on the ground and forage (I was bitten in my right Achilles heel by a blue racer this summer); a nuthatch doing its signature nut dance; a raccoon trying to climb up the pole but falling backwards.

Now the goldfinches are back. The males are turning from bright yellow to olive green, their winter camouflage. Their drab mates await their turn. The boys and the girls never eat together. Is there a lesson there?

“Birdfeeders are the office coolers of the country.” (Note to self: contact the Bartlett’s quotation people.)

*Please, oh propitious, patient patrons pardon the anthropomorphizing, por favor.

 

 

 

 

About Eugene Jones Baldwin

I am a writer: non-fiction, fiction, journalism (Alton Telegraph), essays (The Genehouse Chronicles) and have a website: eugenebaldwin.com. I've published a couple dozen short stories and had eleven plays produced. Current projects: "Brother of the Stones" (available on Kindle), a book of short stories; "The Faithful Husband of the Rain, short stories"; "A Black Soldier's Letters Home, WWII,;" "There is No Color in Justice," a commentary on racism; "Ratkillers," a new play. I am an avocational archaeologist and I take parts of my collection of several thousand Indian artifacts (personal finds) to schools, nature centers, libraries etc. and talk about the 20,000 year history of The First people in Illinois. (See link to website) I'm also a playwright (eleven plays produced), musician, historian (authority on the Underground Railroad in Illinois, the Tuskegee Airmen) and teacher.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *