Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Have I got a story for you

May 27
Only I don't know the end. Nor the beginning.
I was tired today. I guess after biking 6 hours yesterday. And then there where some personal issues this morning, called life. And! my sister became a grandma today. What does that make me?....old. No, I actually felt overjoyed and young.
Anyway, I decided to lay down for a nap on the trampoline. Laying on my back, I was marvelling; the yet greener leaves of the poplars, the dark green of the spruce, with the blue, blue sky. The birds are singing. The sound of the wind. The bees buzzing. As I drift of to sleep, I here a "plop". Coming from a large poplar. It sounds like a chicken egg falling. I think eggs, because this tree was occupied by a woodpecker family last year. I am too lazy to go look. Next time I am woken up, it's by the screaming of a squirrel sitting high up in that tree. I don't see anything that could have upset her. I decide to watch and wait. And I love what unfold next. And here I wish I had the talent of Thorton W. Burgess.(1874-1965)(children's author and naturalist.) I come to realize the next hour that besides great talents as a writer, he must have had exceptional patience. Mom squirrel comes down from the branch she was screaming from, and by golly, there is a little baby squirrel in the grass. She grabs it by the neck and tries to bring it up the smooth poplar. She lets her baby try to crawl after her.The beautiful looking violet-green swallows are not so beautiful after all, and dive bomb at the mom several times.....? The little thing does get higher and higher after many attempts, sometimes trying to go backward upwards. After many attempts she or he realizes that there is a branch where she can hang out. This branch only being two metres of the ground. The brave soul has to go up 6 metres. That is where mom is with another baby in the old woodpecker hole. Mom does come and help once in a while. Once just carrying the baby, ( you gotta see it) this does work till she has to jump 2 feet. She leaves baby alone again, who does fall out of the tree again, now falls silently being caught by a Soapberry bush. She(he) lost its nerve and only makes 1 metre attempts and then heads into the direction of the bird feeder. As I don't have much patience, I decide to go get a snack. I am back in 3 min. ....Nothing in sight. Well they have to be somewhere. I hear screaming in a spruce tree (the other way, not by the bird feeder) One sounds like an alarm call and one like a distress call. I don't know if that's the same family. But I suppose so, because after a while I spot the two and one baby is still in the woodpecker hole. In the background the Flickers are screaming too. And suddenly they are using the tree for some foreplay, several times (three again and I observe something new; one fans its tail feathers beautifully). Another bird, a pleasant singer, unaware, decides to sing a song from the branch underneath the hole. I am getting bit by mosquitoes and decide to go in and type this story.
Later... All is quiet. And as I walk under the tree, one head pokes out of the hole, it looks like mom.

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