Life in the city can be unexpected if you are not a good birder.
Having returned overdue library books, we took a woodsy detour.
Up the stairs, avoiding the switchbacks.
Stairs without balustrades hugging the hillside.
A bird cheeped from a bush to the left.
Curious, it hopped out, and sat on a branch.
And went to a higher perch, and higher still.
It was not a song sparrow for sure. If not a sparrow, it had to be a wren.
It had a pointy beak.
When I had the camera ready it dove back in.
I had lunch and thought about it.
I went up the same Stearns Road Trail.
I heard no one.
I saw no one.
I climbed higher and heard faint tinkling.
To my left and above me.
Were they bush-tits or kinglets?
I saw no one.
I kept wandering.
I saw the silhouette of a Steller's Jay high above and plenty of squirrels on the ground.
I continued on to the neighbourhood feeder.
Through my left field of vision, I saw a silent bird with dark streaked feathers fly away.
Was it a cooper's hawk clutching a junco?
On to the next neighborhood feeder.
Song-sparrow on the tree and juncos all around.
Juncos on the ground.
As I prepare for my shot, I get blocked by a cat.
The cat sees me, and sees the junco.
It hides under a car; stalking the birds. Finally, it gives up.
It walks up to me.
I pet it with my leather gloves.
It looks at more juncos on another tree. Whiskers twitching.
It encircles me and gets petted again.
It looks up at all the tiny birds.
I want a shot of the birds- any bird.
It wants a shot at the birds. Any bird.
Do the birds think the cat and I are allies?
I pet the cat.
The birds hop down on the ground.
The cat moves away and stops three feet from me; looking at the birds.
I look at the birds too.
I get one photo of a junco hunting on the ground.
I look up.
Northern flickers and robins arrive on the tree above me.
A scrub jay flies diagonally through the scene.
A gull flies far overhead.
Do I hear the wren?
When I look down, the cat is gone.
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