The pond this morning
Yesterday the pond was completely open with no ice to be seen. This morning with the colder weather a skim of ice covered most of the pond. It feels like winter is saying…
Je suis arrivé!
(I have arrived!)
It amazes me how quickly this change happens. Just yesterday I noticed that the Northern Shoveler ducks that had made a migration stop on our pond finally left. They spent almost a full week patrolling the pond, bills slanted halfway beneath the water, siphoning up food to prepare for their journey south. I loved watching them glide to and fro across the dark water throughout the daylight hours.
How did they know when it was time to leave? Somehow the migrating birds and butterflies know when it’s time to head south. And they seem to predict weather changes before they happen. Some birds respond to day length changes. Others migrate only when they need to for survival’s sake.
A view of the pond yesterday afternoon (from the far side)
The wisdom of wild creatures is astonishing. Apparently some birds use the stars to navigate, others use the position of the sun. And some detect the earth’s magnetic field.
I haven’t seen any migrating trumpeter swans on Medicine Lake yet this year. Perhaps they will not stop there this year. Or perhaps they will arrive later because of the warmer fall weather we’ve had. Somehow they know when it is time head south for the winter and they know where to stop along the way and how long to stay at each stop. I’m going to keep watch at the lake, looking to see if any arrive during the next few weeks.
The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?— Mary Oliver
November 21 last year
As the season turns I rejoice. What else can I do? Though sometimes I long for endless summer, I know that this place that I love is what it is because of the turning of the seasons. So bienvenue á l’hiver (welcome winter)! I can hope for a short mild winter this year unlike last year’s winter. Only time will tell how this winter unfolds.
May you walk in beauty.
A skim of ice on the pond this morning
November 29, last year
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