Posts Tagged ‘plants and animals’
morning birdcalls – Northern Parula
After a hot day, a cool night. This morning, our windows are wide open and a Northern Parula is busy in our grey woods.
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His distinctive call – ‘whirrrr-zip’ – has an upward lilt at the end. I can catch only a glimpse of him, certainly not long enough for a photograph.
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The Northern Parula is a small warbler with a bright orangy-yellow upper breast. He builds his nests of Old Man’s Beard lichen (Usnea spp.) – there is lots of this lichen hanging from the trees in our grey woods, so of course he is here! This is a watercolour I did of him last year.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
end of winter
Although I love winter, it is so heartening to see all of nature enjoying the melting snowpack and the return of warmer days …
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As bits of fields reveal themselves, the white-tailed deer are out and about, feeding on young sprouts and the left-overs of last year’s harvest …
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The deer are not timid at all, but if the camera makes that whirring sound (remember The Lost World: Jurassic Park?) they are off in a flash, white tails lifted …
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
one room schools – distractions on the way to school
I am thinking about the ways landscape would have influenced the day at a one room school in New Brunswick one hundred years ago. As we drove some of the back roads in the Stanley area this past weekend, I tried to think like a child on the way to school. So many distractions!
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First, the views. Fields green with new corn, yellow with buttercups, winter-white with daisies …
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And daisies to pick, perhaps a bouquet for a favorite teacher …
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Brooks to cross, and the lure of watching for fingerlings in the clear water …
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And a farmer’s pond, with ducks to watch, fish to feed, frogs to hunt and cat-tails …
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Hillsides of fragrant hay-scented fern to roll in …
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Orchards to play in and ripe fruit to gather …
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It makes me wonder how anyone ever made it to school.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
songs in the grey woods – ovenbird, over and over
This week we had a meeting of our writing group Fictional Friends. We are trying something new – dedicating our whole meeting to one person’s writing. The writer ‘in the spotlight’ talks about writing goals and the problems they encounter. Then they describe their current project, giving a synopsis. They read and the group provides constructive comments. We found this first session helpful for everyone present and we plan another session, with a focus on another writer’s work. I think each member of the group learned something applicable to his or her own writing.
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This session was held at my house. I left the back screen open, to let in some air. More than air comes in – at a meeting last month, the sound of our next door neighbour’s rooster crowing provided a backdrop to some reading about rural themes. At this week’s meeting, an Ovenbird decided to start singing in the woods behind our house. ‘Teacher, teacher, teacher’ he said, over and over. Perhaps he was making a commentary on our particular way of learning.
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The Ovenbird is a large warbler, olive-brown. He reminds me of a thrust because of his streaked white breast. He has an orange crest, a white ring around each eye, a white throat and a dark line below his cheek. My drawing is from a photo by Ann Gardner, used with permission. http://www.anngardnerphotography.com/
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Do you belong to a writing group? What methods does your group use to help one another?
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
songs in the grey woods – northern parula
A friend, a knowledgeable wetland biologist, has been helping me learn some new bird songs. Last week, I identified the song of the Northern Parula. This is a bird I have never seen, though I scan those tree tops with the binoculars until my arms ache. I have heard its song so many times and always wondered what it was. The song is a long whirrrrr, flowed by a short, upward flip. Whirrrr -flip. Whirrrr- flip. This morning it was the first song of the morning bird chorus!
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It drives me crazy to hear him sing, be able to find the tree he is perched in, but not see him. My painting is how I think he must look, based on descriptions on the net.
The Parula is a blue-grey bird with a yellow throat, and a yellow and white breast. He has a white crescent above and below his eye and two white wing bars. A bright and beautiful bird! He has an association with a lichen I love, Usnea subfloridana, Old Man’s Beard. He uses the lichen to build his hanging nest.
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Usnea subfloridana on the snow – usually found hanging in our maple, spruce and fir trees
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
songs in the grey woods – ovenbird
He can be a bit monotonous. A bit of a scold. He reminds me of a rusty hinge. He says teacher-teacher-teacher, repeating his song through the woodland. He is the Ovenbird.
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His scientific name is Seiurus aurocapilla. Seiurus (which I remember as ‘serious’) is from the Greek meaning ‘tail shake’, a reference to the characteristic upward flip of his tail. The name aurocapilla means golden-haired referring to his crest of orangy feathers. The Ovenbird is olive-brown, with a streaked white breast. He has a white ring around his eye, a white throat and a dark line below his cheek. He looks a bit like a thrush, but is a large warbler.
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His serious nature and his call of ‘teacher, teacher, teacher’ make me think I’ll include a poem about his ways in my project about one room school houses in New Brunswick. This is how my poems usually begin, with a whisper from nature.
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
songs in the grey woods – black-throated green
Our grey woods are noisy this week. White-throated sparrows, nuthatches, ovenbirds and chickadees. Loudest of all is a black-throated green warbler. He says, in his raspy voice, at intervals of about ten seconds: zee-zee-zee-zee- whee-zee, also a more musical dee-dee, dee-dee, doo-dee (the doo a note lower than the dee). He perches near the tops of the tamarack and red maple trees.
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I sat on our deck a long while, and finally caught him as he paused in a red maple. He had a bright yellow head and looked back at me over his white wing stripe before he flew away. I also get an occasional glimpse of him as he flies from tree to tree. His best features are his yellow head, the two white stripes on each wing, and his black throat.
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a view of the tamarack trees and spruce where the black-throated green warbler is singing – the red maple is just starting to leaf-out
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
in the shelter of the covered bridge – manuscript completed!!
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Last year, in the competition of April 1, 2015, I was awarded a Creation Grant from artsnb (The New Brunswick Arts Board). The award was to create a manuscript of poems about plants and animals living in the shelter of covered bridges in New Brunswick.
I have now completed the manuscript and am ready to submit my final report. During the project I visited 28 covered bridges in the drainage basin of the Saint John River and 5 in Charlotte and Westmorland Counties. I was also able to use the notes and records from my visits to some covered bridges in 1992.
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The final manuscript includes 81 pages, 8 new drawings, and 63 poems, organised into five themes:
liminal spaces – 8 poems about bridges as places of transition and change
notch of a lily pad – 10 poems about the covered bridge as habitat
grit of a blade – 9 poems about engravings and graffiti produced by human visitors to the covered bridge
a blade of grass between thumbs -10 poems about mysterious discoveries in covered bridges
heads of timothy – 6 poems about encounters at the bridge
gaps between boards – 10 poems about deterioration and loss due to vandalism, fire and flood
a loose board rattles – 10 poems about the sounds resonating in a covered bridge
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Many thanks to artsnb for helping me in the making of the manuscript and for the chance to undertake such an enjoyable project!
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
in the shelter of the covered bridge – a line of pigeons
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keeping watch
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Florenceville Bridge
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pigeons swim through air
fill gaps on the ridge line
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perch on the shingled roof
scrutinize the traffic
the squeeze of half-tons
on the bridge
the kissing of mirrors
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pigeons quit the ridge, glide
to the shingled shore
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river winds shiver
hawkweed and sumac, displace
blankets of wild cucumber, billow
the skirts and Tilley
hats of tourists
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published previously in a post on September 11, 2015
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
in the shelter of the covered bridge – vantage point for planets
If there are clear pre-sunrise morning skies this week, we will be able to see a rare view of several planets in the morning sky – Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. For a description of the event, see http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury
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Last year, on February 21st, we saw the conjunction of Mars, Venus and the Moon. On that evening, as my husband and I drove through our local covered bridge, we startled a hare. I will never forget its long-eared shadow as it fled the bridge. The conjunction of planets and moon, and snowshoe hare and truck, were inspiration for a drawing and poem …
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March 1, 2015 ‘conjunction’ Jane Tims
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conjunction – February 21, 2015
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Patrick Owens Covered Bridge
Rusagonis River #2
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planet and moon light scamper
into crevasses in the covered bridge
Venus and Mars, chin velvet
and sickle of mid-winter moon
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headlights of the half-ton enter
overwhelm planet shadow
startle a winter hare
erect on haunches, paw lifted
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frosted by sky-gaze, worshiping
the sliver of moon, dismayed
at desecration, round glare
of the truck’s predatory eyes
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fright to stop a heart
or flight to mobilize
hind- legs straighten
before fore-legs turn
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and long ear shadows
quit the length of the bridge
ahead of whiskers, nose
and rabbit wisdom
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previously published in a post March 2, 2015
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
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