Just a quick note about this photograph, texted to me from Alan Klotz in Garrett County. They are Evening Grosbeaks. I have not seen them in years, and they take me back to winters in a small Massachusetts town. These amazing birds, colorful as canaries, would show up in our backyard to feed on the sunflower seeds my father tossed into a spot he had cleared with a shovel. We never had a bird feeder; the old man would just toss seeds onto the concrete cover of the cesspool, assuming he had shoveled down that far. Then, in a little while, these grosbeaks would show up — a flock of them, and I mean 12 to 15 at a time. It was like something from a magic act in a traveling carnival: Tropical birds on a gray winter day in a gray winter town. All these years later, in Baltimore, I have waited for them to show up again, and I've never seen one. Then today, this photo arrived via digital magic: Evening Grosbeaks on Alan's feeder out there in the far western part of the state. I hope someday the carnival this way comes.
No comments:
Post a Comment