New Life

 

This woodpecker was flirting with his reflection in the sliding door. He stayed at it so long that I had time to go back to the house and get my camera and return. He was so wrapped up in his "new friend" that I was able to get onto the deck within about six feet of him. I don't know how long he stayed at it. I got tired and left.
The birds are our first signs of spring here in the mountains. Those that are coming to stay for the summer and those water birds that stop off for a while on their way north. My favorite of those passing through is the common loon who arrived on March 22 and was still here March 31 when I left for Baltimore. Early that morning I heard his call for the first time this year, not the wild maniacal laugh but the mournful yodel. He is a beautiful black and white and swims low in the water. I haven't seen him today. Maybe that yodel was his farewell.
Just before I left that morning I saw five tree swallows, who had just arrived, fighting over the bluebird house in the front yard. They have used it every year but one when the bluebirds drove them out. They are much prettier than their relatives the barn swallows. Their breasts are whiter and their backs are a deep metallic blue.
And then there are the grackles who arrived in a large flock (four and fifty blackbirds!)about a week ago. They live in the short pine trees that surround my yard and are all over the yard in the early morning eating whatever tiny insects they find in the grass. They look black, but when the sun hits them they are iridescent: blue, purple, green, bronze. Their beady yellow eyes and their noisy sound take away from their striking color. After another week or so they will go away and leave the yard to other birds.
I see God in this beauty and especially in the wild variety and am lifted up by this new life.