Stalked

It is summer. I am in the backyard. There is a virus out there stalking me, so, as they say, I am making the best out of a sow’s ear. The local fauna has decided to use the large blue spruce, which occupies the southeast corner of the yard as a nursery.

Robins, sparrows, and now cardinals made nests, and as far as I can tell, have successfully raised the next generation. Though, I should hold off on proclaiming the cardinals a success.

At the very top of the spruce, tucked in about a foot from the outside edge is a barely visible mud nest. It took a while to locate the small mud inclusion within the shadows of the branches. Even for us city dwellers the attention that this active pair of cardinals paid to that spot portended something was a foot.

Charlotte and I took to a watch schedule similar to one when piloting Carrie Rose. She had her binoculars and I had mine. And mine are the beauteous Leica’s I scrimped and save for, and then bought in the late 1980’s.

Though other binoculars are more powerful, these have clarity of vision. The image is sharp. The colors are vivid. The ergonomics are, well, ergonomic. For years they have lived on the boat, that is when I am on it, as they travel with me. So, it was with the Leica binoculars that I saw the first hint of the muddy brown nest.

Fledgling birds grow up fast. In the few days since spotting the nest, tiny heads with beaks open skyward appeared through the tangle of pine needles each time the parents came to the nest. Then an E, three octaves about middle C was sounded whenever the parents flew away.

As I watch the various birds flutter from yard to yard, I am reminded of a fact that I hear repeated on public television’s science programs: birds are the remnants of the dinosaurs that were left after the asteroid crashed into Mexico. Now, dinosaurs were big beast. So, when I see how the birds constantly fly around the backyards, I wonder if dinosaurs were as hyperactive.

Of course, I know not to lump all dinosaurs into the same category. A brontosaurus was probably not as active as a T-Rex and a T-Rex was probably not as active as a velociraptor. But I admit ignorance and since it is the middle of summer and over ninety degrees, I do not feel like doing research. I am on summer break after all!

I cannot get the images out of my mind. It make sitting in the backyard more adventurous. I anxiously wait for a massive feathered creature to bound over the neighbor’s fence, and stop just long enough for me to take a picture for Instagram.

For it is my secret wish that before I pass from this earth, I will have one picture go “viral”. It will be my 15 minutes of fame, and as long as there is power for the Internet’s servers my digital footprint will exist, waiting to be retrieved by the latest search engine’s algorithm.

Is this too much to ask for while sitting in the backyard, in the summer being stalked . . . is it!

July 2020