Spring sightings (con't.)

Yesterday afternoon we noticed a bald eagle gliding over the house. Later, when one of the dogs took us to check for the mail, we startled that eagle, plus another, out of the trees in the woodlot South of the house. Might it be that we have a nesting pair of bald eagles in the neighborhood? That would be cool.

hen or tom turkey?

Photo by J. Harrington

Late in the day we noticed a pair of whitetails browsing along the woods line West of the house. Based mostly on the differences in their sizes, we suspect it's the same pair that was noshing at the front bird feeder for much of the Winter. The gray in their coats is becoming Summer-red. Then, this morning, we watched a single turkey hen (? couldn't see the front to check for a beard) walk up the slope behind the house and across the field into the West woods. After a Winter of very sparse wildlife sightings, the activity of the past 24 hours is encouraging. Could it be a reward since we finally got around to closing up the bluebird house?

a pair of whitetails at wood's edge

Photo by J. Harrington

Cold Spring

By Lawrence Raab

The last few gray sheets of snow are gone,

winter’s scraps and leavings lowered

to a common level. A sudden jolt

of weather pushed us outside, and now

this larger world once again belongs to us.

I stand at the edge of it, beside the house,

listening to the stream we haven’t heard

since fall, and I imagine one day thinking

back to this hour and blaming myself

for my worries, my foolishness, today’s choices

having become the accomplished

facts of change, accepted

or forgotten. The woods are a mangle

of lines, yet delicate, yet precise,

when I take the time to look closely.

If I’m not happy it must be my own fault.

At the edge of the lawn my wife

bends down to uncover a flower, then another.

The first splurge of crocuses.

And for a moment the sweep and shudder

of the wind seems indistinguishable

from the steady furl of water

just beyond her.

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