Nature in the City

I find it fascinating how much flora and fauna abounds here, in the middle of the city. It begins first thing in the morning, before it starts getting light outside. The birds start going bezirk! In the spring time, it starts around 05:30, but in the summer, when dawn is at 0400, those birds go crazy! I can remember when it actually used to drive me nuts, they were so loud. Today, I so enjoy laying in my bed, snuggled in my covers, listening to the little guys sending out their calls of love or their "stay away, this is my roof". It is funny how the littlest birds are the loudest. Or the plainest ones. Kinda like God thought, you can either be pretty or sing pretty. In the evenings, I enjoy watching the swallows swirl around, catching all those nasty mosquitoes. How they always know which direction to go, and I think they are really having fun, swooping and diving. If I was a bird, I would like to do that.

Last month, I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen here in the city. I was taking out some trash, when I looked toward a big bush where a bunch of sparrows were freaking out. They were all inside of a bush, which didn' t have any leaves on it, but had lots of little branches. Sitting on top of the bush was some kind of hawk or falcon, (yeah, ornithology isn't my strong point) thinking he was going to have a sparrow for dinner that day. I just froze, wanting to watch what happened. The hawk tried several times to lunge into the bush, with the sparrows screaming all the time, and scrambling to change their positions. There must have been at least 20 of them "hiding" in this bush. The hawk was just too big to get thru the little branches though. This is the part of nature that is difficult for us humans. How to pick which animal to like better. If I like the hawk better, then I want it to catch a sparrow to eat. If I like the sparrow better, then I chase the hawk away and it goes hungry or its' babies go hungry. I pondered this for a few minutes while I watched, and then decided to like the sparrows better. I walked toward the bush and the hawk flew away. The sparrows wisely decided to hang out a while longer in their bush.

Spring is exploding now too. It has been fighting with winter for the past month or two, with the trees blooming kind of early and the daffodils popping out extra early. Walking around town, I see carpets of yellow daffodils, lots of aromatic hyacinths. Coming back from the gym on Sunday, I walked past an apt. building that literally had a carpet of violets. The entire lawn was purple! Gosh, that was pretty. Especially nice are the redbud trees, their branches have a nice, delicate look that matches their blooms perfectly.

One of my favorite animals are the little red squirrels. In Ohio we have these big, grey squirrels, that are bold and everywhere. Here, they are little and shy. You don't find them in too many places, but when you do, they are fun to watch. Those little tufts of fur on top of their ears is what makes them look so cute. You can often find them in cemetaries here.

The neighborhood where I used to work had some families of huge woodpeckers. They would often hang out on the lawn, kind of hopping around, looking for food I imagine. They almost look like parrots. It was always a surprise to see them tho.

Enjoy the spring, look for some wonders. I know I will.