Spring

This past Sunday I decided to go for a walk about 8:30 in the morning. It was a sunny, breezy, kinda coolish day -- the perfect day for a morning walk, the kind of weather my dog Sully would have loved. A few houses down from mine I heard a tap, tap, tap on metal. I looked up, and there was a woodpecker trying to create a hole in the metal (steel?) TECO light pole. When the woodpecker noticed that I had seen him, he took off, hopefully to find a more conducive environment for his drilling. May I suggest a tree?

I walked on, enjoying the sun and breeze. As I passed under a tree overshadowing the sidewalk trailing along by the main road, I heard a little bird commotion. Looking up, I saw several tiny birds -- some appeared to be juvenile cardinals -- flitting here, flitting there, chirping like they were singing to God. In the midst of all this liveliness was a red-headed woodpecker who merely clung to the tree bark. Perhaps he was listening too. Again, when he noticed me observing him, he flew away. Now, I don't think I'm that scary-looking but apparently I am to woodpeckers.

I then walked down the dead-end street behind my subdivision to the pond at the end to check on the geese who have made this part of Carrollwood their home. I do this periodically. I don't know why I care about these geese but in the past I've hounded the county (which owns the pond) to fix the part of the chain-link fence that was cut so people could enter the protected area to do whatever they planned to do once they accessed the pond. The geese were fine, as were their Mallard duck "friends." On my way home, I heard quacking and glanced up to see three Mallards flying over my head. They amaze me. Mallard ducks fly so fast, so fiercely, as if they are being chased by monsters from outer space, whereas the seagulls around here just laze in the sky like they have all the time in the world. I wonder where it is the Mallards are going and why they have to get there so quickly. Hmmm . . .

We live in a busy asphalt and concrete world and it always bowls me over when I see a white Ibis or a great Blue Heron or anything wild living easily amid our human urban madness. So often I can't handle it, I don't know how they do it. Perhaps wild things can compartmentalize their existence. Perhaps they're smarter and stronger than me.