Tuesday, August 26, 2014

In The Moment

I devoted some time to reading outdoors today. I sat in a camping chair in the sun and when it got too hot I moved to the shade by the deck and read more.
My chair sat close to my garden and close to the garage.
This gave me a fine view of the young house sparrows helping themselves to the sunflowers in the garage feeder.
They are noisy and sloppy eaters, much like me.  For every seed in a beak at least nine more flew off the side.
They ate a bit and flew off to a nearby tree or the birdbath or to the cable that runs from the house across my garden and yard to the alley. They sat on the wire and shat on the lawn and flew off to attack the seeds once again.
They are happy in the way that a bird is happy on a sunny day when there's food and water and shade about. They are living in the moment and it is a grand lesson for all.
We have many birds come to our yard. Goldfinches are regulars, chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, and assortment of sparrows and other members of the finch family including an orange variant house finch.
Few siskins have been about this year. While I wonder about it I am a bit relieved as the 40 lb. bag of black oil sunflower seeds  lasts longer without the flying stomachs to feed.
That may change now that the young house sparrows have found the feeders.
It is relaxing to sit in the sun as they eat and fly and chirp. It is a good noise. It is a wholesome, natural, and soothing noise and it convinced me to put down my book and be in the moment with them.

7 comments:

solarity said...

I think we are hard-wired to find bird noises soothing. It means there are no predators around. Of course, there are alarm calls for that. Here in the city, I never hear the sudden silence that means a hawk, although I see them from time to time. (They no longer land on my roof-tree with a *thunk*.)
For me, there's nothing that compares to the call of geese flying overheard. Here in the city, some geese apparently live quite near me, because they fly over my house several times a day all year round. Delightful.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

Leah J. Utas said...

Ah, the geese. The siren call of spring and fall. Exciting at both times of year, but there's an overlay of sadness when it's harvest time.

messymimi said...

When i hang the wash out in the mornings, i love to stop and listen to the bird song. And have a bit of a talk with the crows. They call out to each other, and if i talk to them, they will sometimes talk back -- i think they scold me for trying to interrupt!

Tabor said...

Will set out my feeders after I return from my next trip. Then I will be counting and watching for Cornell.

Leah J. Utas said...

Crows will tell a person off just for existing, I think, Messymimi.

Enjoy your trip, Tabor. Cornell?

David Cranmer said...

Being in that kind of moment is always good. Enjoy, Leah. And I am in a similar moment, right now, myself. A bird feeder nearby with hummingbirds swirling about. I love that sound. Like little helicopters landing and taking off.

Hilary said...

Yes, I think that most of us would be a lot happier if we could master the art of living in the moment. Nice to know you have a lot of avian friends come around to your feeders. We've been enjoying our own and at least a half dozen chipmunks.. and a couple of red squirrels. They sure do entertain.