Category Archives: golden-crowned sparrows
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
November is haiku month for me.
smooth and unruffled
he contemplates his safety
competing for seeds
The Proud King and his Timid Queen
The golden-crowned sparrow and his girl are having an adventure on the feeding station roof. They are observed from a distance by a fox sparrow and his friend.
My golden crown means I am king,
It’s why I sit atop this thing.
Melodiously will I sing,
To celebrate the fall’s last fling.
Can anybody join you there?
You seem so high up in the air.
To be alone without a care,
Just doesn’t seem to be that fair.
But please, how do I get back down?
My happy face is now a frown,
I’m feeling foolish, like a clown,
My fear is negative renown.
Oh silly girl, just fly to me,
You’ve got two wings to flutter free,
A hero you don’t need to be,
If you come down I’ll marry thee.
Says foxy sparrow to his mate,
Such foolishness will not abate,
I’d marry you at any rate,
Just follow me and don’t be late.
Spring Ditties
It was a day of surprises. Yesterday, this plum tree had only tightly bunched up buds. Today the sun came out for a few minutes and the plum tree called out,
“Look at me! Look at me!
Every flower a plum will be!”
The next surprise lay at my feet as I stopped to admire the plum tree. It was just lucky I didn’t step on it.
Robin baby, where are you?
Found your shell that you picked through,
Lying by the blooming plum,
Just the size of someone’s thumb.
Morning, sparrow, golden crowned,
You don’t mind me being around,
Posing for me for so long,
Before bursting out in song.
Waxy petals calling out,
Any hummingbirds about?
We’re the colour that’s the best,
Not much sugar, that’s a test.
Try it putting out your two lips,
We are truly tasty tulips.
You rang?
Dim Sum
Sorry. It’s not about Chinese food, although I would love to have some right about now.
The brightness of the sky today got “dim some” when the fog rolled in. After days of heavy rain, the clouds regrouped and pondered their next mode of attack, increasingly darkening the sky as the day wore on.
After a while, the fog moved into our place higher up on the hill, and we lived in a cloud for much of the day.
Even Rufus, the spotted towhee, had trouble finding the feeder until Goldie (the golden crowned sparrow) chirped to let him in on the meal.
Groping, groping as we fly,
What has happened to the sky?
It’s not blue nor full of rain,
Will we see the sun again?
Chilly, chilly is the air,
Need to find nutritious fare,
Build our strength and warm us up,
Need some grains for us to sup.
Foggy, foggy all around,
Where can all the seeds be found?
Goldie chirps and calls to me,
She’s my compass, friend, I see.
Sharing, sharing all the seeds,
She has way more than she needs,
Nice of her to share her lunch,
Think I love her a whole bunch.
By the way, Rufus and Goldie both invite you to check out Anneli’s bargains for her books at https://wordsfromanneli.com/2021/11/21/book-bargains/
A great deal until Christmas.
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Sadly, this golden-crowned sparrow is no longer with us. He hit one of my recently cleaned windows yesterday, and reminded me why I had put off cleaning them for so long. He looked so lifelike when I found him in a planter beside the front door, so I thought he deserved to be remembered as he might have been only moments before. I propped him up to sit on the snapdragon stem.
He has dirt on his beak and his feathers are a bit scruffy from his fall into the dirt, but he still looks beautiful to me, except that he’s not alive anymore. I feel really bad when I lose a bird on my windows.
Golden-crowned sparrows have a mournful song, and today I had the distinct feeling that his friends were looking for him.
If you listen to this very short video clip, you’ll hear his friends calling for him, saying, “Where are you? … I’m so alone.”
I heard that awful sound again,
A bird has hit the window pane.
Emma perked up at the sound,
Barked and stood up, looked around.
On the landing it was clear,
No dead birds, not far, not near.
Maybe he survived, I thought,
Just a headache he has got.
Later as I watered flowers,
Wanting to avoid the showers,
I looked down to place my feet,
When I saw this bird so sweet.
Feeling faint, I lifted him,
Knowing that his chance was slim,
Broken-hearted, I could see,
No more would he sing for me.
Beautiful, he looked in life,
Wonder if he had a wife,
Soon I heard her calling sweet,
Hoping that her love she’d meet.
One last perch upon a stem,
Such a beauty, such a gem,
As his soul wings high above
We’ll remember him with love.
A Windy Night
“Will ya look at that?” Emma says. “Branches all over the yard are bad enough, but that one that smashed into Lincoln’s house is huge. And it’s still up there!”
“I know! I saw the whole thing from inside my cedar hedge home when it happened.”
The Captain pulled the treetop off the woodshed roof with his old beater truck while the Admiral ran for the tape measure. Thirty feet snapped right off the top of a tree to the left of the woodshed.
And another long branch is still up there – it got hung up on the way down.
“Good grief!” wails Lincoln. “That was my lookout tree. The whole top is gone. And I had plans for all those cones left on the tree.”
“I feel just sick!”
The forces of nature make changes on Earth,
They make creatures realize what life is worth,
The wind can move trees and the branches around,
It howls and it yowls with a frightening sound,
The birds and the squirrels take cover and hide,
They shiver and shake while the storm they outride,
But after a night that they spent curled up tight,
They creep out and check in the bright morning light,
To see if their home world is standing there still,
It’s been slightly changed, but survive it they will.
wordsfromanneli 