Baby orca – one hundred
feet away from low bridge, arcing, smallest whale I’ve seen since the birthing
lagoons in Baja
Seals – first seen just
off local pier; visible again off floating dock at marina in neighboring town
Heron – the
uncharacteristically bold one who stands erect on pier post just one yard from
my dog’s nose as we walk past
The ends of the tree branches are covered with webs
that are crawling with tent moth caterpillars.
Loons – the call from On Golden Pond comes to me one evening
and I see a ruddy head; the next night I see the pair and recognize the calls
back and forth as mating ones
Osprey – eating high in
Douglas fir just across our little road, his high-pitched call so different
from the bald eagles who nest in the nearby tree, I grab my binoculars and see
that he has the remains of a fish in his craw; he notices the crows ready to
thieve and flies off with the remainder of his dinner – no doubt to eat in
peace (anthropomorphizing?)
That little rock there has just the very first
cells of barnacles beginning to grow on it, like polka dots.
Purple martins – the
nesting boxes have been there all winter but only this swallow’s presence
brings them into my awareness; purplish blue and black but much more vibrant
than a bruise; beak looks too tiny for his size
Kingfishers – coming and
going so that I forget they’re here, but the neck ring so easily visible
somehow binds me to them
The seaweeds are remaining on the beaches during
low tide, big swaths of greens or yellow, auburn or ochre or maroon.
Flicker – male,
rat-a-tat-tatting on our roof eaves; hard to photograph because he wants to
bolt at the first – even silent – indication of me
This place is a menagerie
and just when I begin to think it can’t get any better, any more natural, any
more exciting, another being shows up or flies across a fire-red sunset sky, or
calls in his mate. Just when I think it can’t possibly resemble paradise and
soulfood more than today, tomorrow comes and brings a new blossom, another
unfurled leaf, a shift of light and water or ripple and shadow that has me
swooning in love all over again. On Wednesday night, it literally took about
seventy seconds for me to make this list of recently-encountered creatures.
Noticing and noting really don’t take much; we just need to decide to be
present.
