Excerpts From a Field Guide to North American Birds

the field guide

has a table

of the species

that winter here

and what they eat

as if we would

choose the food we feed

to birds in summer

to have the best flock

in the cold season . . .

the brown

thrasher is clicking

clicking . . . persisting

in her clicking

interrupting a

somnambulant

meditation with

her purposeful clicking . . .

we're learning

for the first time

how to capture

what we're discovering

so we might

remember later

when we picture . . .

wind rustling through

the tall yellow solidago

may be a cardinal or a sparrow

. . . looking for something . . .

for something . . .

the thrasher continues

her clicking in the thicket . . .

reminding me of something . . .

a sliver of

a pink silk ribbon

from the wrapping

of the gift for reading

woven into a nest

abandoned almost

hidden high in

a transplanted holly . . .

the guidebook

written long ago lists

the species that fly south

for winter . . .

how they do it . . .

mapping the route

they travel . . . at great personal

expense . . . the consuming

of the energy budget . . .

to find food and the safety

of warmer weather . . .

. . . explains in

a footnote why

it may be worth waiting . . .

how it helps in

bird watching to

have binoculars

and be patient . . .

how some

members of

migrating species

return to the very

same yards year

after year in spring . . .

for frolicking

and nesting . . .