This morning I followed the sound of rapid pounding and then birdsong outside just after six. I had recognized the American Flicker but I was curious as to where I might see him. It didn’t take all that long to locate the brown and cream bird with the black throat beard and slashes on its wings and its back. The creamy colored belly was dotted with black circular shapes still slightly visible in the gray of early morning dancing atop the transformer on the electric pole across the alley.
Above it on the cross beam or rather hanging over it, was the tail of what turned out to be a Starling; identified first by its song and second by its shadowy silhouette when it moved along the beam’s breadth.
Neither one of these were any kind of revelation or indicator that the day might transform into something unexpected or special and as it turns out it hasn’t become anything other than a normal August afternoon in Ely. The temperature hasn’t even climbed to 70 yet and my blood pressure seems low and steady. It might just be a normal day. It’s been a while since that’s been the case.
