Goldfinch

Some of our parks, including Spring Lake, were opened in a limited sort of way today, even as the Stay at Home orders were extended until the end of May. We can now walk, with appropriate precautions, at  Spring Lake, but we must either walk or ride our bikes to Spring Lake.  By the time we walked to Spring Lake we would have used up our allotted time and wouldn't have time, or energy, to go further. Pity.

"Free as a bird" came to mind as I sat on the porch today watching the birds coming and going from the feeders. Some days seem endless, and the press conferences and news briefings just sound like "Blahblahblah" 

Outside I can stare into the leafy oak trees and let my mind wander. Not that it doesn't do that about 99% of the time anyway. Delightful little scraps of color, the finches feed amicably together, but if a woodpecker or a stellar jay shows up, they scatter like falling leaves, only to return the moment the bigger bird leaves and resume their place in the pecking order. 

Today as I watched, every bird simply disappeared, vanished, nowhere to be seen. Seconds too late, a hawk swooped low over the bottlebrush plants and then, acknowledging defeat, took off to a post high in the branches of the oak tree. It was a long time before the little birds ventured back. Constant vigilance and some kind of inter-communication is required despite the outward appearance of freedom.

Thinking of our current predicament, I remembered a poem by Ogden Nash:

A CAUTION TO EVERYBODY
Consider the Auk
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly
and could only walk.
Consider man who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk
And learned how to fly before he thinked.