Hmmm, how would I survive without those moments to give pause that Mother Nature so lovingly bestows upon me?
Saturday morning. I’m up early anxious to cash in on a rare warm and sun bleached day in a rather dismal April. A promising day of bird watching is ahead of me. My passion and my primal stress reliever.
But I have not yet shed the baggage of the work week. Impatience festers beneath the surface. Every small delay winds me up a bit more. Not the start I want to this coveted and self-indulgent day.
I arrive at the first of several birding hotspots I plan to visit. To my chagrin, fifteen or twenty cars are already parked there. A noisy crowd is most definitely not what I seek. I almost take a pass on this woodlot. Thankfully, intuition tells me not to do so.
I bird the woods with impatience steering clear of the talkative group of birders that grates on my nerves. Good birding but not great. I cross the narrow, dead-end road to the adjacent field of scrub bushes which always seems to hold something special for me. Mother Nature is waiting with the first moment to give pause of the day.
A tail bobbing Palm Warbler – a particularly brilliantly coloured specimen – pops out of a bush onto the ground. It poses there, just for me, displaying its golden yellow breast and jaunty brown cap. And, lest I miss it, flips its tail to reveal its golden rump.
I take a deep breath. A chunk of the week’s baggage sloughs off me.
On to the next stop – one of my very favourite birding locales. My game plan there is well established. First stop: the cut grass trail along the flowering bushes near the parking lot. Here, the next moment to give pause awaits.
A bubbling string of varied calls signals the first mimic Catbird of the spring. Catbirds do not boast much in the way of colour. But their slim, slate gray body and black cap are quite regal nonetheless. And again, lest I miss it, it turns its back to me and flips its tail to reveal chestnut undertail coverts.
Another deep breath. Another layer of impatience dissolves.
Down the gravel trail towards the pond. A flash of rufous brown. And another. A pair of Brown Thrashers. I creep forward to catch one rather uncharacteristically posed at the top of small pine. Showing off its rich brown jacket, elongated tail and curved bill. It flushes and drops down into the weeds.
I look sideways. A Sharp-shinned Hawk is poised in a small tree. Slim bodied, rounded wings, rusty-barred breast and hooked bill. A threat to the Thrasher but a joy to me.
Breath deeply again. The past week is slipping away.
Down through Cool Hollow to the marsh for the pièce de resistance.
A Green Heron, normally reclusive and hard to sight, flies into view and perches proudly on a fallen tree trunk. I creep closer to admire it. Thick, spear-like bill, chocolate brown neck with black border and glossy green back. And, oh yes, that piercing and self-possessed yellow eye that surveys the surroundings.
I breathe easy now. The week past is gone. Mother Nature’s living metaphors of serenity have redeemed me. The remainder of the day I can follow my heart’s whisperings. Giving pause where it is due and matching my pace to the rhythms of nature.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.
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Tags: brown thrasher · catbird · Green Heron · impatience · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Mother Nature · palm warbler · serenityNo Comments