A Little Bit of Eden

I have derived enormous spiritual gratification from watching birds on my daily walks.  It is a blessing that where I live thrives a considerable number of wild life  and each day, it seems,  I discover something new, surprising and immensely  soul-gratifying.

earthworm diggings

There is a reason why they call this  “communing with nature”.   Imagine how it was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden!  There couldn’t have been any comparison.

On a particular day last week  I saw a bird gliding in the air and droppings falling horizontally off  its behind.  Free falling…bird poop are rightfully called droppings.

Further along, I glimpsed a raccoon dipping its hands in the water and quietly slipping back into the woods when it saw me. 

(Don’t look for the raccoon… it’s not there).

I also found that the swamp apples are blooming flowers in April.

On my way back I spotted a pair of  common moorhens on the water.

common moorhen (courtesy of veniceaudobon.org)

Yesterday I saw these two great-tailed grackles on the tippity top of a pine tree making a ruckus. Bodies facing each other and faces to the sky with beaks wide open they were in some kind of performance ritual --- tweeting and flapping of wings, tweeting, flapping. Today I saw what might have been the same two birds on the top of the tall electric pole doing the exact same thing. 

A lot of these birds like to perch at the very tops of things… be it trees, or poles, making them quite  difficult to view. So I decided to bring my binoculars with me along with my usual cell phone which I use to record bird sounds and to take extremely long distance and over-exposed  pictures.

Today I saw an osprey on the top of the pine tree where I last spotted the grackles. It flew away when I ventured close.

osprey (courtesy of aviceda.org)

At the end of my walk I heard tapping sounds and was alerted to the sight of a wood pecker tapping on the palm tree. Around a 100 feet ahead, I saw another wood pecker and a blue jay on the same tree.

woodpecker  (courtesy of animalwildlife.blogspot.com)

blue jay (courtesy of photo.net)

I have yet to identify the bird who makes seven or more unique sounds.  I saw it again today on the metal electric box of an electric pole while I was waiting to pick up Matt. It had a straw in its beak. I later realized that the metal box was its nest as I saw a couple of them come out of the” nest”. She later came back this time, with a twig.

When I go on my walks I prefer not play music so I can hear the   birds. I am regaled by God’s creation and along the way, I pick  from the plants either growing wild by the side of the road or the neighbor’s discarded  cuttings  to pot,  thus, to bring the outdoor pleasures inside my home.  And the bird sounds?  I have captured them as well either to share, to my son, or to listen to on another day for a little bit of Eden for my soul.

Wish-bone twig on my path.

P.S. And never the lose the sense of wonder and awe that you had as a child.