Birds

     One of the results of COVID-19 for many of us is being home a lot more than is usual. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on who you are and what you enjoy. Currently popular advice tells us that now is a good time to look around, breathe deeply and try to connect with our surroundings, especially outside if possible. One of the simple acts that I have found enjoyable is feeding the birds. Besides my favourite chickadees there are sparrows, juncos, finches, towhees, and even the occasional jay--- although they are usually looking for peanuts and not black oil sunflower seeds. The movement around my various feeders is always changing and very satisfying, at least to me. One extra special sighting is the Anna's Hummingbird which stays here throughout the winter. I make their sugary mixture a little less dilute in the cold months to ensure that it won't freeze and the hummingbirds will get enough of what they need. The sight of a male hummingbird with his magnificent though tiny red face against the backdrop of a white-washed wintery day fills me with hope: hope that spring is coming, that life goes on, that even small lives can be impacted by our care and concern. I am not the only one who has felt that hope and birds were interconnected as this poem written in 1891 by Emily Dickinson demonstrates:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird 

That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea-

Yet - never- in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Emily Dickinson

Anna's Hummingbird---    Photo Credit: Dr. Manfred Kusch