Michael and Diane Porter put up this (2012) photo of a flock of winter-time American Goldfinches on their website Birdwatching Dot Com. Their company out of Fairfield, Iowa sells everything one would need to start birdwatching.
We accuse someone of being a "Bird brain" when we think them to be dim, slow or unintelligent. I don't agree. I'd say birds are in the know and have a great deal to teach us. We might do well to keep a keen eye on them and learn some of their lessons.
Entering the time of overwhelming darkness,
the sparseness,
the sparseness,
storm and
chill -
no more solo, undulating flights
across open lawns and
fields,
but gathering now
into flocks at feeders -
Goldfinches
seem to know what we forget:
that we need each other.
