The Round Pen

I can't resist fog or the early morning light, so when I saw the crow perched in the heifer pasture tree, nearly hidden by a curtain of the former, yet lit up by the latter, I had to go out.

At the old round pen, I heard odd sounds. A flock of Dark-eyed Juncos scattered like leaves before the wind as I stepped near. I watched and listened for a while, until the sun rose higher and the fog was nearly gone. 

There were so many birds in and around that weed tangled old enclosure, picking at insects on the blackberry canes and leaves, that the sound was as distinct and sharp as the start of a rain after a long, lamented drought.

The Round Pen Now

And then

No honest counting. They were deep in shrubbery, so many that I thought about herring.

It was the same all the way to the pasture, through the good horse yard, and past the old, vacant-because-it-is-too-wet-and-muddy, other horse yard.

There were at least twenty juncos, thirty to fifty gold finches, cardinals, robins, over a dozen chickadees, White-throated Sparrows galore, beaucoup de Tufted Titmousies, and a pair of Carolina Wrens. Woodpeckers. Plus American Crows all over the hill and Canada Geese, heard, but not seen in all the fog.

A hundred birds? Maybe more. It was simply a stunning birdy moment.

I used to use the round pen to start Border Collies on sheep. Alas it has grown up to Box Elder and Blackberry and languishes unloved and undogged.

However, it seems that others are finding it useful in my absence. They are ever so  welcome as long as they keep paying the rent required.

A few songs, a flutter, the musical patter of their feeding on the bugs....that will do just fine.


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