Condor

Standing on Navajo Bridge

I see two condors

on the cliff face they look small

great wings tucked and resting

Colorado River moves below

takes rafters through the Grand Canyon

hoping to see a condor

maybe a peregrine falcon

Our guide tells of the time

high on the rock ledge

temperatures so hot

fledglings died in their nest

Still I want to see a condor take flight

I want to watch it soar

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Nesting condors have been observed at Zion National Park and I am hoping that global warming doesn’t push them out of their nests too early. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9814501/amp/Two-critically-endangered-California-condors-spotted-near-Zion-National-Park.html

Mating

Marveling at your bird app

Mimic sounds of a species

Make a tufted titmouse sing

Move in on a sandhill crane

Mating call is now released

Menacing drop of its head

Mark your retreat with rigor

_____________

dVerse prompt to use the Pleiades form—

seven lines, each line has seven syllables and must start with the first letter of the one word title (true story about my husband and his birding)

November

November pulls the daylight shorter

crisp long shadows

a cool moon

hallways of justice écho

will there be unfaithful electors

in this month of political aspiration

migrating birds begin their journey

when there is snow on the ground

they will come to the feeder

Today the hawk came

perched on the fence

I do not want to witness

hawk swooping

to squirrel or bird

or my small dog

the hawk

ready

with talons

and hunger

___________

dVerse prompt on November combined with prompt on witnessing

Outside

• 

Outside

a squirrel & a dove

feed on the ground

figs are coming on

second crop for the birds

& my vision blurred

by the screen

_________________

dVerse prompt to take a photo out the window, post photo and write a poem. Oh, how I feel my vision has been blurred lately.

Birds of Prey

SHOCKING to see the cardinal eat a gecko

thick beak designed to crack seeds & nuts

one would expect it from a blue jay

not this red bird with its sweet song

now a gecko hangs from songbird beak

lifeless & being shaken

its head consumed then tail

legs gnawed away

it looks like a small fish

yet too big for the throat

of such a now ravenous bird

_________________

I looked out the window today and saw this cardinal with a gecko. Unexpected metaphor to the current events.

Illusion

 

a thud on the window

see-through glass brings the woods outside in

just for a second the bird believed it could fly into my living room

hit hard

spine fracturing thump

 

 

a pine siskin is convulsing outside on the deck

its beak moving as if it eats

feet traveling in a journey

wings that cannot move

Springtime Mating

There is a horny robin

banging into the reflection of itself

against the glass window he thinks he found a mate

it is cold and hard

repelling his every move

yet he keeps coming back

handsome with his orange breast

sits at the top of the apple tree

contemplating his new approach

and mumbling

that feathered bitch

On Navajo Bridge

Two California Condor on the ledge

young ones with faces to the cliff

it was a cold night

after warming up they will fly

if you hear the wings pound

watch them soar

__________________

Saw these condor when walking the Navajo Bridge

Name Change

to my husband

I took your name

it was smooth

birdlike

a long necked thing

white or black

never in between

this is not a swan song

it is a love song

ready to sing

against a sea of feathers

a bird taking wing

White Pelican

The first white pelican I saw was in Florida.  My husband and I were driving past a pond and there it was resting on the water.  I shout white pelican, white pelican.  (We were sometimes birders.). Go around the block.  He won’t do it.  He keeps going.  There is only so much pain I can wear on my face.  I kept it there for days.

Now in Texas he says – did I tell you there were white pelicans on the lake yesterday?  White pelican, white pelican.  We walk to the lake seeing them from a distance.  We keep walking to the shore and there they are, about a hundred more.

find white pelican

migration flight in winter

wipes the pain away