birds – Page 5 – One Woman's Quest

Glorious

How a single ray of light
slips through a thicket
setting a leafy row ablaze,

How the kingfisher’s trill
echoes off the silken waters,

How our love remains despite
the ills that pursue us –

Glorious mystery.

(Image from personal collection.)

Brown Creeper

Full sun,
river dons an icy blue,
white banks blind,
light hits water –
bedazzled burst –
I seek an angle.

Banditry of chickadees
noisily arrives
dance their joyous jig –
too slow my lens

Movement on a bare bark
draws my focus,
a brown creeper –
I am lucky this time
delightful noonday capture.

Bald Eagle

Intense, your presence,
fierceness of talons, bulk of
feathered might – humble
my soul’s rejoicing, grateful
to share this brief encounter.

(For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day.)

Spotted Sandpiper

A succession of tweets
draws me to riverbed
where tiny legs scurry
across exposed rocks.

Foraging amongst
soggy offerings,
the Spotted Sandpiper
exudes confidence.

It is female who
choses breeding ground,
prepared to defend
her clan, appoints

her mates to mind
the young – she is
polyamorous, hormone
driven – a force.

(For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day.)

Vultures Come

Vultures come
sharpen talons and beaks
tear at necrotic flesh
pick this carcass clean

I need a committee
to rid me of parasitic past
trauma’s cadaver
weighing me down.

(Linking up to Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day. A macabre bird and poem to fit the season. Image from personal collection)

Mallard

In Mallard’s wake woe –
with clipped wings, I watch and yearn
for Winter sojourn.
(For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day, and RonovanWrites Weekly Haiku Challenge: wake/wail)

Cormorant

Feathers fanned pronounce
prowess of river raven –
deep diver, swift flight.

(For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day. Image from personal collection.)

Surprise Visit

The river holds so many surprises
least of which is the sudden appearance
at water’s edge of a tall white egret –

a countenance I acquaint with Texas
and warmer climes – what wonder
to find this greatness at my backdoor.

(The Great Egret is common in coastal areas, but not a bird I have encountered in Ontario, until now. Linking up with Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day.)

My forward movement
startles us both –
you ground foraging
with the robins,
me delighted
by a flash of red –
heart at your nape.
You rise, alight
on tree branch
your squeaky call,
warning or greeting
stops me in my track –
patiently I wait
as you circle the tree
head bobbing, alert,
till we both settle
and my lens succeeds.

(For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day. Image from personal collection.)

Great Blue Heron

Blending in
the gift of stealth
only your voice –
woodsy reed –
alerts me to your presence.

You are grey sky
and rushing waters
tall reeds and
wind-swept banks

And when my heart
beats off tempo
given to spells
of malaise
you are metronome
reseting my rhythm.

(Friday I join in with Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day. Photo from personal collection.)

Category: birds