This year I've started birding at recess, taking my binoculars with me every day and using the precious outdoor moments to survey both kids around me and birds above me. There are many days when I don't see much at all, just some House Sparrows and a Mourning Dove or five. But here are some other birds I've seen at recess: Hispaniolan Lizard-cuckoo, Hispaniolan Woodpecker, Palmchat, Bananaquit, American Kestrel, Northern Mockingbird, Gray Kingbird, Vervain Hummingbird, Antillean Mango, Cape May Warbler, White-necked Crow. And anyway, as a birding friend told me recently, even if I only see the super-common ones, "All birds are good birds." I like that as a birding philosophy, and it also fits well with a haiku mindset. In fact, it seems a great way to approach life in general, taking what comes and making poems out of it.
Flash of yellow breast
Bananaquit swoops upward
Then hangs upside down
Creaky cry, striped tail
Bright red eye glares down at me
A cuckoo haiku
From the very top
of the pine across the street
a kestrel watches
Red head, yellow, black
Carpenter hammering trunk
Woodpecker screeching
Ordinary day
House Sparrows and Mourning Doves
All birds are good birds
I've written before about my experiences with writing haiku on recess duty; here's an example.
15 comments:
You are fluttered by intriguingly named avians & your are so spot-on, even the frequent flapper/fliers are a joy to behold. Brava! for binoculars. Your poem makes me want to grab mine & head outside. Wonder Full weekend to you, dear Ruth.
The birds you've seen at recess are wowing me with their names. "All birds are good birds" is a good motto. I feel that way about dogs, except for one particular dog in my neighborhood.
Oh, I envy you your spottings, Ruth, but also, I agree, all birds are good birds. I love seeing the sparrows flit around my pines & I love hearing them, too. But it is flashy when the Northern flicker comes to the suet. I love the sound of "A cuckoo haiku" - just right, isn't it? Happy Birding!
I love the bird names too, and your "All birds are good birds" on the playground makes me think "All kids are good kids." Spot them with your binoculars...
So smart - taking your binoculars. I am going to start being more deliberate and taking mine as well. I love your bird love, Ruth.
I like your "cuckoo haiku" too it has a wonderful ring to it… I"m always happy to see the Sparrows and Mourning Doves, I think they're important, where my husband thinks of them as ordinary–but they are there singing to us all the time… Thanks for introducing me to the Antillean Mango Ruth, what a spectacularly colored bird–may have to paint one!
Ruth, this post is delightful. I love, "all birds are good birds." Please tell your friend I want to take this line for poetry. And, your haiku are like birds in the trees...all different, all singing their own tale. That cuckoo haiku is fantastic!
Yay, Ruth--for all your haiku AND for your birding and life philosophy. Thanks for this Saturday morning scoop of joy.
These haiku are lovely and their subjects so exotic to me. Thanks for sharing these colorful snapshots from your day.
All birds ARE good birds!
Just yesterday I read these lines in George Mackay Brown's Beside the Ocean of Time:
"I've been sent home," said the boy, "for laziness and inattention. Mr. Simons says I'm no good to the school or myself or the island or anybody."
"Well done," she said, "you'll go places. I think you'll be a poet when you grow up. You'll be poor of course, but you'll be a poet."
Then she shares her birding binoculars with him!
Wonderful bird haiku--each a glimpse of a feather or shape or color ready to take flight. I also like the attitude of all birds are good birds. This morning we had a pair of geese visit the pond, and yesterday a great blue heron swopped across.
What a feast of wonderful birds in your haiku. I especially love the sound of
A cuckoo haiku
:-)
The birds here in Illinois aren't so exotic, but I loving watching and listening for them.
You had me with your post's title! I love that you are turning recess into a natural adventure, followed by poetry, and just look at all you've discovered. (And three cheers for "All birds are good birds.") It's definitely Spring around here bird-wise these days - they're all "twitterpated" to borrow from Bambi. Thanks for sharing!!
Our schools are returning 100% next week...all except for the Remote Learning Academy kids, which are my kids. Because I'm in the building, I will have recess duty, and now you might have given me my NPM focus: recess haiku. I'm going back and forth between haiku and LPS's equation poems. Maybe a combo project? I do think I'll take my binoculars to school and try to do some bird spotting while I'm outside. I can hope for mockingbirds and bluebirds and redwing blackbirds, but I'll probably see sparrows and doves! All good birds! (And all good children!)
A'' birds are good birds'. I like that. (Might remember it on my next snorkelling trip - all fish are good fish). I think especially if you remember that some of those birds (or fish) would amaze the person who doesn't see them daily.
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