HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest
MICHAELMAS A.D. 2005
WE HAVE a mystery on our hands here at Hillspeak.
Where were the martins?
For the past quarter century or so they have been as regular
as clockwork. We know that we need to get the houses cleaned and
up on the
poles by the second week in March so the scouts can locate them,
ascertain
their suitability and report back to the others. And then, just
as regularly,
the flock will show up on or about St Joseph’s
Day to set up housekeeping.
Along about the middle of August they will have raised their
brood, taught the fledglings to fly on their own, and then en masse
they leave
Hillspeak for another year.
That did not happen this year and we do not know why. What
we do know is that we missed them very much. We missed being
chided by them
when we mowed or walked too close to their nests. We missed
watching Mama and
Papa Martin bring food to their nestlings. We missed watching
them feed on the
wing (what a hard way to get one’s supper!). In the evening they
swooped and
swirled in their pursuit of flying insects and every now and then we
would hear
a contented, shrill shreeee, indicating a martin had caught a
particularly fat
and juicy gnat or mosquito. The aerial acrobatics were, by far,
the best show
of the evening.
We missed all of that this past spring and summer. We had
our other birds — cardinals, robins, red-winged blackbirds, wrens,
finches, even
a pair of roadrunners — and we enjoyed them all, but we did miss the
martins.
Maybe next St
Joseph’s Day they will be back with us.
©SPEAK, INC
805 CR 102 - EUREKA SPRINGS AR 72632-9705
PHONE: 479-253-9701 FAX:
479-253-1277 E-MAIL: speak@speakinc.org
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