birds – Life Along The River

Swan

We debate what kind. Trumpeter or Tundra? Juvenile? Why alone here with the mergansers and mallards? We notice the shape of the beak. The nudge of orange. The grey rolling down the narrow neck and onto her back. Like dirty snow. Or clouded sky. The wonderous wings unfurl and spread every now and again. I…

Geese

A spring, not so long ago, I discovered two Canada geese in the field by the blue pool. A spring when my father was still alive. The pool is a luminous ribbon of water that arches away from the river and cuts across a fallow field. I visit this part of the river often. Follow the…

Grouse

It’s the hard business of being that gets to me. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about the way you get worn down. The day in and out of work. Stumbling at the end of a day in the woods, or no woods, the ones cut down and me thrashing through the dog hair…