Sitting in the chair of my ‘work from home’ desk, I dismissed the sounds of rustling leaves just outside the window as being just another breezy gray December day. When I finally ignored the twenty-first century long enough to look… birds. At least five fat orange-breasted birds with gray feathers – I mistook them for robins but know not what they were – beautifully grabbing leaves with their beak and throwing them to the side with great violence over and over and over again. Their plumage matching the muted tones of autumn, one could almost mistake the leaves popping up and casting themselves aside rather than a small flock inhabiting my porch looking for – and occasionally finding – a meal. I sat there and watched them work for several minutes and then, when I moved to get up, they flew away, vanishing into the woods, maybe never to be seen on my porch again.
today, birds of spring
foraging through autumn leaves
winter approaches