Earth Day

     It was a beautiful Earth Day, with warm, comforting weather and a cloudless sky that smiled blue all day. When I took a walk up the mountain, the birds were throwing their songs into that sky. In the afternoon, a wind wandered down from the top of the ridge and played with the trees for a while. If ever there was a day for celebrating the Earth, this was that kind of day. 

    This has been that kind of spring, too, with balmy days and an unusual number of animals blessing me with their presence. First, a northern pygmy owl flew into my apple tree. easily identified by the spots that look like eyes in the back of his head and because he was a daytime owl. I wanted to see him dive for a mouse, but he outlasted me, and I finally turned back to my work, glowing from the treat he had given me.

    Next there was a fox, which my son, visiting from his home in Washington, saw first. At his cry—"Fox!"—we ran to the window to admire the russet and silver coloring, the silky tail, the lithe, graceful movements. We watched that fox leap after the mouse the owl never found. 

    The next morning it was again my son who spotted the pileated woodpecker I had heard when I woke up, so big and beautiful, with his red head pounding like a jackhammer and then flashing through the woods. At that point we saw the second pileated, no doubt his mate.

    One evening after my son had left for his home in Washington, I heard the fox bark just outside the back door. When I opened the door, he twirled his tail and darted away. I think he had just stopped by to say hello.

    Then there was the hawk that flew to the top of a tall fir where I had stopped on my walk to listen to the birds. And the large bird that swooped from my house through the woods over my pond, maybe an owl, but probably a great blue heron.

    And, climactically, coyotes, calling from somewhere far up Humpy Mountain, lifting their noses in the air, stretching their throats and pouring out their songs. They were a rare treat.

    Today I was supposed to do a Facebook Live recitation of nature poems in honor of Earth Day, but something went wrong, and the recitation didn't go live, so I'll have to reschedule for another day, which, alas, won't be Earth Day. But nature poems are good to read any time. As one friend said, "Every day is Earth Day," as this spring has made abundantly clear.