Poetry - the Snow Bird

The Swallow and the Blue Bird, the Couriers of Spring

Receive at their coming, the welcome of friends;

Yet 'tis pleasant to see, too, the fluttering wing

Of the bird that arrives when the snow flake descends.

 

Though dull in his plumage, and small is his form,

And sunless the day is, and cheerless the night —

He comes like the bow — "in the van of the storm,"

To show us how beauty and horror unite.

 

When the red-breast returns in the Spring of the year

The Snow Bird has gone to his region of snow,

And builds him a nest underneath a glacier

Where icicles hang o'er a cavern below.

 

For he comes but in winter, and stays but a day,

As to breathe above zero, for him is too warm, —

So he spreads his light pinion and hastens away,

And goes as he came, in advance of the storm.

B.

March 31, 1830. Youth's Companion 3(45): 180. From the Boston Courier.

A Day of Infamy for Bird-Window Collisions at Omaha

It is a day that will linger in infamy for its denoted occurrence.

On Monday morning, 11 September 2013, with gloomy gray skies, blustery winds and descending temperatures in front of chilling weather system, a bit of snuffed out life was found on a sidewalk in downtown Omaha.

A Dark-eyed Junco carcass was forlorn among the blowing winds, seemingly forgotten after dying upon hitting a glass window on the upper facade on the west side of the Omaha Public Power District Energy Plaza building.

Once discovered however, its demise will live on as the particular species found to represent the 500th day of recording bird-window collisions in eastern Omaha. This was just another example of the so many singular tragedies of a similar sort, but its fate is being recognized and will not be forgotten. The birds' feathers are unkempt looking, obviously results of being blown around on the sidewalk of a concrete jungle; though the colors and splendor are still representative!

Once documented, the life bit of birdness was placed in a natural setting to it could properly return to earth, rather than unceremoniously being ignored or worse, get thrown into a trash container.