Pelicans and Sparrows!

Two of my poems were published recently in Kingfisher, the newsletter of the Minneapolis Chapter of the National Audubon Society.

I had been driving along I-694 in Fridley and caught sight of a large flock of large, white and black birds. Paying attention to my driving . . . I exited and pulled to the side of the road and found the flock again.

They were flying in formation. White Pelicans, sailing and flapping in unison. I had seen pelicans before but never in an urban area. Then I thought . . . hey . . . Moore Lake is near by. Perhaps they stopped temporarily in their migration south.

What an incredible sight it was! Here is the poem:

Pelecanus erythrorhychos

Black-tipped whites set sail

glide, flap, turn – in unison

Silent symphony

∞

White-throated Sparrows are certainly staying around a long time this fall. Usually they slip through quickly on their migration south. Not so this year. But, I’m not complaining.

Their fall traveling songs are nothing like their spring clear whistles that sound like the words “Old Sam, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.”

They aren’t too bad as vocalists even in the fall. After all, they are the national bird of Canada!

Fall Mumblers  

  Muffled mumbles –     

    inside the forest’s edge.

       White-throated Sparrows 

are passing through.  

Almost reluctantly,    

a full, clear, whistled 

 signature-call sounds.

Just once.

     Then, back to mumbling.

Saving the best

for spring.