Birdtober Day Twenty-Four: Bullfinch

 

Photo Source: eBird.com

EBird lists fourteen species of bullfinches, but I chose this one because I saw it in Haiti. It wasn't a regular part of my checklists, but one day last year when my husband and I went birding with a friend up in the mountains at Wynne Farm (see video below), we saw five. An email I wrote at the time reminds me that our friend was heard to remark, "Another stinking bullfinch!"

I can't think of Haiti now without pain, both because I miss it, our friends and our life there, and because what's happening there now is beyond terrible. So it is good to think of beautiful days like that Sunday of birding, days full of uncomplicated enjoyment of the natural world. 

I remember that day in Haiti

when we saw 31 species of birds

including five Greater Antillean Bullfinches

and a Narrow-billed Tody

and Jim talked about Ted Kooser

and we ate crackers

and walked only a mile and a half  

in four and a half hours

because we were looking so closely

and listening so well.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey