notes from the kelp

…listen
…about the music

Elegy.

Lovely as this adorable fellow appears, he sits in my palm floating into whatever afterworld little birds float to upon hitting a house window at full throttle.
Oops.
I heard the telling sound… thwackud!… from upstairs earlier in the morning. I hoped that like many of his luckier pals, this guy merely boomeranged and landed in a dazed state, with little cartoon stars swirling around his head for a while until he snapped to and was able to fly away, a tad more mindful of his direction.

In the afternoon I stepped outside to refill my tree feeders for the open woodland aviary I’ve quickly created. Juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, towhees, sparrows, finches, woodpeckers and others are on the dole from the benevolent Shapiro government. The percentage of my publishing income going toward raw oiled sunflower seeds is growing at an alarming rate. I looked down at my feet as I passed a window, and there on the deck was this beautiful kinglet. Motionless.

I’d actually never seen one before. I had to consult my trove of bird books to identify this creature, gifted with such beautiful markings and no larger than a hummingbird. I hope the next one I see is flitting among the seeds in the yard, and that the reflections in the largely glass house that shows me his world, never tempt him to leave it to visit mine.