There has been continuous snow for ten days now, and the result has been the best bird show my yard has ever seen. I think I must be the only person in the neighbourhood putting out bird food, and the poor things are cold and hungry. We have several hanging feeders with various types of seeds and suet, and I always sprinkle seeds and peanuts at the base of the trees for the squirrels and shy birds who won't come out to the feeders. Shawn has rigged a heat lamp close to the hummingbird feeder to stop it from freezing. The yard is teeming with wildlife. Squirrels, raccoons, wrens, starlings, finches, bushtits, jays, crows, redwinged blackbirds, spotted towhees, sparrows, Northern flickers, downy woodpeckers, and more. They visit all day long. And I take my job seriously. I go outside regularly to refill the food. I bring the hummingbird feeder in at night to prevent it from freezing, and turn off the heat lamp. And then bring it back out in the morning before first light, which is when the hummingbirds start looking for it. This morning I must have been five minutes late with the feeder because the hummingbirds were already out there. I could hear the buzz of their wings. To my complete amazement, a hummingbird landed on it while it was still in my hands and began to drink from it. I thought he would be nervous, being so close to a human, but he did not seem to be concerned in the least. He stayed for several minutes, inches away from my face, so close that when he flew away I could feel the breeze from his wings against my cheek. This was a beautiful way to begin the day.
I am grateful to live in a beautiful place where I have enough land of my own to have some distance from my neighbours. This distance from them allows me to be closer to other things that matter to me and bring me a fulfillment of spirituality.
Sometimes people ask me about my job, how it is possible to spend so much time up close and personal with other people's pain, and not absorb it. But that isn't my nature. My nature is to reflect upon the beauty of my own life by contrast, and remember how fortunate I have been.
*
2 comments:
That is very cool about the hummingbird. We don't get them here in the winter, though - just in the summer and fall. Then they migrate on. I fill birdfeeders front and back and also feed the silly squirrel.
I feed the squirrels too - or rather, I do nothing to prevent them from sharing the bird food. I quite like watching them and their acrobatics. Sometimes I even feed the rats. I don't really have a problem with rats, although I hear I should. I'm an equal opportunity feeder.
Post a Comment