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Retired publishing executive ecstatic with the idea of spending most of his time on the coast of Maine

Friday, July 1, 2011

Birding hour, with G&T

Now this is the way to bird watch:
1. Weather is finally warm enough to sit on the deck at 5:00.
2. Bring out a book and a crossword.
3. Also bring chips and G&T (no, not grackle and tanager).
4. Abandon book and crossword almost at once.
5. Watch the big birds on and over the water first - the duck armada, the crows swooping, the seagulls sailing and stealing crabs from teenage ducks. Hope for osprey.
6. Gradually get lost in the ordinary birds on the land.
7. Little wrens poke humbly in the newly mown lawn, one getting closer and closer (hold still!) until a breeze flaps the pages of the book and scares it away.
8. A robin takes its place, proud, upright, alert and not frightened by literature.
9. Friend hummingbird (I see it almost every cocktail hour in one tree or another) perches at the very top of the spindly spruce, quiet for the moment, replete with nectar (I hope).
10. A dozen goldfinches fly around like crazy, diving and chasing each other and tweeting (the good kind).
11. Have a second G&T to celebrate the little things.
12. Two mourning doves fly down the shore together.
13. Forget to listen to Maine Things Considered, forget for a while about dinner and responsibility.
14. Laugh at the faux birds coming into Knox Regional, going in such straight lines, having no imagination, boringly noisy, going to ground by computer and the need to be somewhere else.
15. Go inside only because it's getting cool.
16. Repeat tomorrow.

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