Today I saw a bird circling high above Lake Av as I drove down it with the kids in the car after a day of school. It caught my eye because it was performing some unusual acrobatics on the wind. It was hovering like it was suspended on strings, not circling, not flapping, just hovering. Then it swooped dramatically sideways so that if there was ink on its wing and the air was paper it would have drawn a broad and shallow U. Back to hovering, now on the right side of Lake, still high above the street lights and low buildings, and then another sideways swoop. It was so high it was hard to see what it was at first, but by the time I slowed for someone in the cross walk I could see it was a crow or a raven. It was black and looked big so it was probably a raven since I read somewhere that they tend to be daredevils and usually fly solo.
The wind was also unusual. There was no sign of it down at street level but up at the tops of the trees it was almost wild. The long hair on the lady crossing the street wasn't moving but the branches up above her were being blown in great gusts. Strange, I thought. Like two different worlds right next to each other.
I like to pay attention to the birds. They seem always to show up in interesting moments and to occupy a different world. They live in trees. They can fly. They eat worms and small animals and pick up trash. They are urban dwellers like me. Like the lady in the crosswalk. But they manage without all the things we think are necessary. Houses. Electricity. Cars. There are so many of them, you would think the trees would be overcrowded with nests, but its rare to find one. Even rare to find their cast off feathers, or corpses. A friend in New York pointed out recently that you never see small pigeons. They must somehow keep their young protected and hidden until they are full grown. But where?
Birds are very adaptable. Especially the city birds we know so well. The pigeons [my daughter likes it when I refer to them by their 'real' name: Rock Dove], the house finches, starlings and crows. We humans are pretty adaptable too. But we take up a lot more space.
bird thoughts: I never thought about not seeing pigeon babies...that's so oddly true. My dad (bird people) was castigating me last time he was here for not knowing the difference between a crow and a raven...he said ravens soar, have rounded tail feathers, and make a gravely sound from their throats. Also, my friend was visiting the other night and he has an old string of christmas lights up on his porch, and a hummingbird made a nest on the string (he had pictures on his phone) and the nest was the size of a thimble, and had two eggs in it, one cracked and one not....his child found it.
ReplyDeletethanks for the thoughts! Yes the Raven Crow thing is a game I play every day. Seems like up near the mountains here, we have more Ravens!
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