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ial flies along with a tiny hardy reel and three weight line in a pocket of my jacket it s all that i need for a pleasant entry to ribeira dos caldeiroes in the wind blown mountains by the blue atlantic one of several converging streams in park lava cliffs atlantic surf sao miguel island share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading posted in uncategorized tagged azores birding family natural history portugal rainbow trout sao miguel travel wild trout writing 18 comments keeney swamp a haibun posted on march 20 2025 by wings of a tern i crossed a small wooden bridge where black creek drains keeney swamp and slides quietly toward the distant genesee a great blue heron rose clumsy at first its long sinuous neck unfurling like a snake to circle with an awkward grace downstream eagle nest winter green diversity bird and frog and lily pad the creek s burbling song it was here that keeney swamp displayed its richness from aquatic vegetation to the bur marigolds at my feet from the wood duck nesting boxes to the insect chasing kestrel at the forest edge keeney offered wonders for investigation monarch butterfly through honey scented air tones of balsam fir i climbed from the glacially established balsams unique to the region to the hardwood forest laced with spruce and hemlock cushioned with banks of fern where deer paths met the gravel road flies buzzed and a strand of spider work collapsed across my face opening slowly snap a brittle stick no need to be so quiet humans live here too i picked up a discarded bottle and retrieved a plastic bag hauling bits of garbage was an inconvenience but the least i could do to demonstrate my gratitude for beauty soon attention redirected to the clatter of spruce cones bouncing down the branches where a red squirrel was at work drum beat of a grouse upon a mossy log replays spring desire from the summit of fitch hill old memories of keeney swamp a northern shrike once perched on winter balsams white winged crossbills fed on hemlock cones beside a beaver pond virginia rails clicked summer warnings from the cattails edge and red shouldered hawks circled on the warming air rare spring migrant found by observers on a count kentucky warbler my favorite bird count at the swamp occurred in mid may 1996 the land was lively with both resident and migratory species 86 for the day a personal record at the time haunted by sounds from air through outspread wings wood duck s whistling flight i found a colony of small yellow flowers on the surface of a marshy pool the greater bladderwort utricularia vulgaris is a rootless carnivore resembling a miniature snapdragon growing on a pinkish stalk mysterious and beyond my comprehension afloat in the pool bladderwort entraps its prey a quick draw sucks you in our wetlands need to be protected and hopefully appreciated we have lost too many through the years they lock up carbon and prevent its leaking into the atmosphere they trap and stabilize our run off and pollution wetlands buffer and control the floodwaters and biologically speaking are producers equivalent acre by acre to the earth s tropical rainforests bug and frog and bird at the wooded water s edge our home at the marsh share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading posted in uncategorized tagged haibun hiking keeney swamp natural history nature poetry preservation walt franklin wetlands wildlife writing 11 comments from poultry to poetry better late than never posted on march 6 2025 by wings of a tern will christman 1865 1937 an upstate farmer poet influenced my own approach to poetry an article in a small rural newspaper from the 1930s inspired the following prose poem on a possible way that w w c got his start with a new career in 1924 william w christman helderhill farmer and family man was 59 years old he had yet to write a serious poem but a pre dawn incident changed him like an aubade filling a despondent lover with a song he woke to the clatter coming from his chicken coops he rose naked as a blue jay in a lilac bush and snuck out with a 12 gauge scattergun two figures laden with bulging sacks rushed out from the henhouse halt demanded will hands up now or else the figures probably frightened maybe not so much ignored the future poet cutting to the chase they ran the gun raised and the buckshot from one barrel split the morning air but only grazed a runner s neck and face it missed the sack of cackling poultry on they raced coming to a stop at the delaware hudson railroad bridge near quaker street eventually a sheriff intervened and later found 15 plymouth rocks and 15 rhode island reds recuperating in the back of earl and oliver snyder s beat up packard hidden in williams hollow christman at 59 had apprehended the notorious snyder boys destined for an upstate prison christman the lifelong farmer grabbed the plow of poetry and pushed it toward a john burroughs medal awarded in 1934 he wrote invitations for a homecoming to the pine tree and the wild bird and the women he had loved his chickens lived contentedly emerging from the coop each dawn to peck for the corn tossed near a poet s door one part of a seasonal poem i cut brother pete s photo of himself a family chicken from an old college yearbook he doesn t like his human picture taken personal photos rob the soul the first four lines from christman s poem peter westfall he was all earth its sand and grits and clays a big hard handed man brawny and browned who wrestled with corn whiskey round by round like jacob and the angel in old days and now for some robbin bank chicken poachin bluegrass fun with michael hurley the unholy modal rounders click on the following you tube vid stomp the whole album in fact has been a fave since 1976 i love robbin banks tell the teller thanks uh honey for me i love poachin chickens i love drinkin whiskey makin me feel risque ye hah share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading posted in uncategorized tagged chickens human nature micheal hurley poaching poetry poultry prose poem walt franklin will christman writing 12 comments getting a grip posted on february 25 2025 by wings of a tern i ve had a difficult but productive winter in new york i don t mean big apple difficult new york city would be difficult for me in any season i mean here in bootleg hollow 300 miles from nyc generally i like this season and its possibilities of snow of which we ve accumulated more this winter than in recent years but it s been relentlessly cold with an almost ceaseless breeze or wind i ve had it pretty good however reading and writing with more fervor than usual and striving to hold the line against old age infirmities now the wild birds start to call and twitter in the early light of day the ice begins to loosen for a while and maple sap begins to inch up toward the boughs it s nice to be out walking once again looking up bootleg hollow looking through our study window at the feeding stations underneath the spruce we witnessed the flight of birds explosive and chaotic as a sharp shinned hawk swooped in and sank its talons into the sky blue feathers of a jay i saw that the newcomer was a sharpie not a cooper s hawk because of its long squared off tail the similarly sized cooper s has a rounded tail the two birds battled one another on the snowy ground and a different struggle whirled up in the depths of me i fought off an instinct to step out and save the victim but the avian action slow but fierce with bird determination was a natural play for which i would have no entry beyond the sense that i had set the stage one bird was doomed and one bird would be less hungry for its efforts we humans who may not have a problem ordering chicken sandwiches from a fast food joint shouldn t have an issue with a scene like this unclear photo taken thru window the blue jay nearly as large as the predator on its back shook itself and fanned the air with fiery beak and claw but the hawk had its talons and a hooked spear working in overdrive after several minutes at least the jay relaxed and the hawk flew up and outward toward the barn and spruce grove with its heavy load i stepped out somewhat thankful that the victim wasn t one of our smaller and less numerous species like the cardinal or the tufted titmouse blue jays are a very common and rather raucous sort in bootleg hollow thriving on our bird seed and the suet we provide all season i don t make it easy for the hawks or the wandering feral cat i place evergreen boughs for shelter close at hand but then again i don t begrudge occasional forays by a sharpie or a cooper s for a devastating strike unclear but ready for takeoff it s nature red in tooth and claw and we who see it on a regular basis are a part of one big picture that is inspirational at least for some for now i remain in the grip of an upstate winter that appears to be relaxing just a bit the grip is sure to tighten once again but for now i see the slow flight of a season toward the exits while a new light seems to strengthen day by day i can wish that your own days are enlightening with your thoughts and actions rooting like seeds of change p s i opened up my dad s copy of the ancient rubaiyat of omar khayyam and found one quatrain that i ll modify a bit the last two lines with apologies to o k for the purpose of this post ah to make the most of what we yet may spend before we too into the dust descend into the snow and under the dust to lie sans wine and snow sans song and singer sans the end share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading posted in uncategorized tagged birds blue jays hawks nature omar khayyam poetry struggle winter writing 8 comments two ravens redux posted on january 30 2025 by wings of a tern four years ago i posted an earlier version of the following sketch this re do is included in a book that i ve been bringing to fruition a work about my life with birds there s a certain timeliness to the raven tale that suggested i present it once again for your enjoyment hopefully the first days of the new year were an icy mess although i still had a pleasant walk on the paths developed near the house i hadn t been keeping an active bird feeder at the time but i needed the company of winter birds so i made my daily foray on the hill no matter if the birds seemed scarce as january dandelions or if the weather seemed inviting as a trip for dental surgery the earth was dirty white with rotting snow and ice a walking stick probed the ground as my boots crunched awkwardly along the sloping acreage crows called from the distance of the valley i may have heard the nasal outcry of a nuthatch or been cheered briefly at the sight of a chickadee in the evergreen boughs but mostly i perceived the winter emptiness the solitude defined by the departure of autumn birds and foliage an outing wasn t necessarily a sad affair i had friends and family music and writing in my walking meditation however i looked around me for the words to fill an inner silence two ravens flew across the valley battling the strong winds high above two ravens soared and circled climbing the winter thermals screeching once or twice their wings breasting the currents their eyes apparently reaching the horizon their great beaks opening krah one of the ravens seemed to fly from a myth perhaps from the stories told by native american elders i recalled a multi faceted character a creator spirit and a trickster from the far northwest for a moment i imagined wings reflecting the sun a gift for the world the second raven was the noisy one i listened to the piercing squawks the croaking on the wind medieval overtones a link to the anonymous english poem twa corbies two birds disappeared from view but a raven dialogue remained raven the consumer he looks no bigger than an ant down there walkin along puny man what does he see in birds like us raven the creator birds like us pull him up and out of who he is he can soar with pleasure man he can see raven the consumer we can peck his eyes out when he dies we can shred his brain all the gray stuff and the red all the questions and the wonder till the wind licks everything clear and clean raven the creator keep on flyin brother don t forget we created him and all the world we allowed him to dream of us up here we let him think that we can speak with human words you ll pick his carcass one bright day if you re patient and your breath holds out but wait he s gone already in the snow krah in the snow i felt lucky to be alive and feeling well a lone rambler near my home and not the slain knight of an ancient lyric where twa corbies two ravens worked at his dismemberment and the whitening of his bones it was good to walk another day on earth to know a pathway linking the distant past to an hour in cold january i could populate the vacant air with avian existence even though the vast majority of birds were living in far terrain in freer moments i might even try composing a new poem about those ravens of a myth those dark birds of the present time writer s desk kitchen window parmachene belle the henry bridge western pa raven s night greenwood ny love this a sonic time lapse by the riverside share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading posted in uncategorized tagged birds brian eno mythology nature poetry two ravens winter hikes writing 18 comments the blue pencil treasure of a weed posted on december 6 2024 by wings of a tern years ago i received a special letter from my late friend mary stiver a poet living out her last years in south carolina the letter was a copy of some gentle criticism sent to her in 1958 from the renowned writer william carlos williams who encouraged mary to write write write and use blue pencil to get rid of the redundancies or every word and phrase which does not add to your meaning williams continued with this caveat but do not tumble into that hole of total unintelligibility we ve already had enough of that although it did have its uses kinda short but you get the picture these days my blue pencil tends to be a blue fine point pen but the tool is one that holds a similar purpose i can jot down my thoughts regarding mary w c williams and another inspiration h d thoreau i don t know if the author of walden ever mentioned a blue pencil in his works but i sense that his immense journal was a great companion to him an encouragement to write write write about what he saw rather than what he merely looked at he could write about the power of the wild for instance in the treasure of a weed the treasure of a common winter weed tan and broken by the wind and snow i saw the drab tones of a goldfinch perching on a weed stalk small bird swaying side to side spearing the diminutive seeds with a stubby pointed bill sustaining its...