I got stuck in the little house the other day. It was 5:15; I'd finished my last conference call, sent my last email and changed my status on Lync; I'd unplugged my computer and gathered up the dirty dishes.
But I couldn't leave. The backyard was full of quail.
Several coveys of quail, maybe 100 birds altogether, use the area where I live. I suspect they bed by the river, then come up the cliff to forage in our yards during the day. I see them as I drive through the neighborhood, and they often cluster under my arctic willow, near the street. In early fall, though, they fly right into the backyard – and the other day at least twenty of them clucked through the grass, with more on the roof and in the spruce beside the little house.
How could I disturb them? I stood in the open door of little house, watching and listening. They make such a peaceful sound, those quail.
After awhile, though, I realized I was also hearing my children laughing in the main house. I walked along the garden path, slowly, slowly, slowly. The quail skittered a bit but they didn't flush. They stayed. Talking amongst themselves.
**
While reading Jane Eyre last night, I was suddenly struck by all the references to nightingales. We don't have nightingales in the Americas. I've never seen one nor heard one.
This, my friends, hints at why I find this book so fascinating. Jane Eyre is part of my canon – as a white-skinned, English-speaking American, it's part of my heritage – and yet so much of it is alien to me. Nightingales are alien... I keep thinking of this book as science fiction.
Anyway, if you've never heard a nightingale either, you can listen online. I imagine it's a pale reproduction of the original.
6 comments:
You know, I had probably never heard a nightingale, either, and never thought about it. But now I have listened to a couple of recordings. I was surprised at how varied their songs are.
(Also, my husband walked into the room as I was sitting here listening to birds on my laptop. "It's twitter," I explained.)
Twitter!
Alejna, I've missed you. You always make me laugh.
Laughing at Alejna.
We have ruffed grouse and wild turkeys here. The turkeys are really skittish, but the grouse just stand there and watch me watch them. Not in those numbers, though. Spectacular!
I love the image of a yard filled with quail.
Even before I got to the nightingale bit I was thinking, 'Quails? I've never seen quails' and realising that I had never realised that quails were something a person might see.
(also, lol at alegna)
i love the bird sounds. it's nice background music.
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