A shy and hidden bird

In the swamp, in secluded recesses,
A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.

Solitary, the thrush,
The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,
Sings by himself a song.

- Walt Whitman, in When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d (Leaves of Grass)

Because my first and only other sighting of it some weeks back had been rather brief, I was thrilled to have a long and close look at the aptly-named Hermit Thrush today at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve.

I had no idea how famous it is in American poetry. Besides the above quote, consider the following:

• A Hermit Thrush is the title of a beautiful poem by Amy Clampitt. (This link provides both the text and a recording where you can hear her read it herself).
  
  
• It is also the title of a poem by Henry Van Dyke, which I must confess is too treacly for my taste.
  
  
• It finds mention in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.
  
  
• The Hermit Thrush is the name of a collection of poems by Kathleen Millay, Edna's lesser-known youngest sister.

in with the new...

I wrote a long post for this blog after the new year and my screen froze, so it was all wiped out. Sigh.

Anyway, the short version is that I was reporting on a few birding trips:

* A new year's eve trip to Antelope Valley, a trip lead by Louis Tucker, focused on identifying Raptors. I got to sit in a car with experienced birders (with 20 and 30 years of birding experience each, respectively) and listen with rapt attention as they talked about their passion. I got to see all kinds of raptors (including Northern Harrier, Rough-legged Hawk) and other interesting birds including the Greater Roadrunner and California Quail. Another highlight of this trip was meeting a 9 year old who has seen close to 200 species already over the past six months that he has been birding. This made me resolve to involve my little ones more in  bird-watching this year...

* On Jan 2, I participated for the first time in the annual Christmas Bird Count organized by the Audubon Society, at Hahn Park, joining Eric and Ann Brooks, local experts. New sightings for me included the Peregrine Falcon, House Wren and Bewick's Wren.

* These are pictures of Rose-ringed parakeets we found at the Del Rey Lagoon. Seeing them felt somehow magical, because I re-connected to something forgotten from my childhood. These are birds I grew up with more than two decades ago in India. I remembered that they used to eat up nearly all the fruits in the Guava tree behind my house, before they could ripen, much to our frustration. And I remembered how their loud but not entirely unpleasant squawking filled the evening air as they roosted in large numbers.

   

(Photos by Zhen Krishnamachari)

***

I came across a nice birding blog today, by the poly-lingual Tom Miko, titled the "The Pro-Nuclear Birder":
http://radioactivebirdwatcher.blogspot.com/

This made me plan to compile a list of blogs by birders...