Observations - August 19th

A small bird was making a big fuss on the porch this morning. It was somewhat wren-like in its general shape, with an upthrust tail and down-pointing wings. It had a reddish, streaky breast, and a white eyestripe capped with a darker one. Its beak was slightly downturned, long and pointy. I've not seen this bird in the West. It made calls that sounded like alarm calls, but I didn't see anything alarming, and the bird kept interrupting itself to fluff and groom its breast. (This resulted in a few entertainingly muffled cries.) It flitted along the porch railing, hopped over to the mint in the pot at the corner, then hopped into the pot among the mints.

Suddenly, it flung out a katydid! Onto the railing, where it proceded to peck it into pieces and bolt them down. Half of the unfinished insect fell off the side during this vigorous attack and the bird followed.

There is a rabbit on the neighbor's lawn, in the shade, watching.

Last night there was an impressive thunderstorm. The flashes of lightning lit up the whole neighborhood with that eeriely white light. The thunder growled and rattled the windowpanes. The winds blew down leaves and sticks and sent rain across most of the porch. I kept alternating between curling down into bed and enjoying the rumbles and sound of rain and jumping up to go look out the windows and, at one point, to dash out onto the porch to keep newspapers from blowing away. This was all after midnight -- which is probably why I'm still sleepy at 10:30am today. (I am very grateful D. is patient with this sort of late night enthusiasm. He, after all, is the one who has to get up early for faculty orientation activities. At least they do feed him.)

Some bird is chipping away in a bush in the front yard. I believe I recognize its call from my last Midwestern residence, but I've not gotten a good look yet to confirm. This little chipping creature would be, ahem, a chipping sparrow.

I think a lot of people are going off to school this week, or are on vacation. Blogland is very quiet, and I miss my visitors. Thanks for sticking around, those of you still here!

Comments

[JM]

I am tremendously jealous of your thunderstorms. I love them so, and we don't get them.

The blogosphere does seem a little quiet, except when everyone's freaking out (ok, not really) about the impending start of classes. To make up for everyone else, I wrote like ten things in the last day. Now i'm tired. :)

[Chris Clarke]

We are here, we are here, we are here!

[Rana]

Yay!

(I still have to send you that $ for the dog battle. *hangs head*)

[Jane Dark]

And I'm not going anywhere, either. Just slowing in the summer heat. And I, too, am jealous of the thunderstorms. We don't have such things in Seattle.

[Chris Clarke]

I can front you the buck, R. (Buy me a cup of decaffeinated green tea when I come sleep on your brand new Red State couch.)

Besides, you're far from the only person who has yet to cogh up the cash.

[halloweenlover]

That vicious bird!

Do you think there could be cicadas in a suburb of Boston? I hear this loud chirping sound that is continuous, not like a grasshopper that chirps and then silence. Almost a chirpy buzz.

I love the imagery!

[Rana]

I think that there probably are -- wasn't there a big swarm of them in DC or something a few years back?

[Pilgrim/Heretic]

Also thunderstorm-jealous... they don't make 'em here like they do in the Midwest. Although, to be fair, I *loved* a good storm when I was a kid, but not so much now that I own a house. :)

[MisterBS]

Expecting another storm in this part of the Midwest overnight. Is it weird to hope it wakes me?

On the other hand, I hope it's not as bad as the one we had last weekend, which left 160k-odd people without power, brought down magnificent trees all over town, and was responsible for at least one house fire by lightning strike.

[russianviolets]

Rana, you are a beautiful writer, and I always love to read your descriptions of things, like this. I feel that my woeful whines are crap by comparison. Thank you for keeping this going.

[Rana]

Oh, but whines are fun to read! (Plus I think that whines should always be given a style pass; I figure they serve other purposes than entertainment).

Thank you, though. *smile*