Portraits of rural visitors

Yesterday we had an unusual visitor. A woodcock, also known as timberdoodle, stopped by to grab a quick bath in the driveway. S/he then trundled into the woods for a snack. Here's the bath sequence.

woodcock driveway birdbath 1

Photo by J. Harrington

woodcock driveway birdbath 2

Photo by J. Harrington

woodcock driveway birdbath 3 (getting tush clean)

Photo by J. Harrington

woodcock driveway birdbath 4 (shaking tush dry)

Photo by J. Harrington

This morning we had a male bluebird surveying his domain from the top of a young pine tree while a doe explored that same domain for something to eat.

male bluebird in pine tree top

Photo by J. Harrington

alert doe checking for breakfast

Photo by J. Harrington

Bukowski's The Blue Bird from Brain Pickings via Poetry Foundation's HARRIET blog

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?


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