My second story bachelor apartment has a south-facing balcony entrance that looks over a wooded lot, which is actually part of the property that I rent. In that lot there grows an assortment of ash, maple and poplar, which I'm told by neighbours has grown wild since it became a rental property almost twenty years ago. What was once a manicured lawn is now a reclamation of nature and habitat for squirrels and numerous species of local and migrant birds. For the last six years, it's become a source of solace and joy for me. Every morning when the weather is mild, I will sit out on my balcony to sip coffee and watch the theatre of nature unfold in those crowded branches across from me. As I mention later in this blog entry: "Every morning when I sit outside I force myself to observe for a few minutes out of respect for my surroundings. I almost feel like the spirits have something to show me each morning and I should indulge them." Every morning I will sit, avoid my phone and give the trees my complete attention and without fail, something always happens that makes me smile.
The following is a journal that I've written in the last couple years about the rewards of my patience each morning and the drama of the natural world that I've fallen in love with.
May 25th 2022- A kestrel frequenting the area. I think it's a female from the way it lingers here, as if it has a nest nearby. Mama Kestrel at the top of the pine tree, a seagull flying by tries to swoop down in pester her. It gave it up when its buddy flies past.
May 26th 2022- A lone Crow lunges at a little Sparrow at the top of a telephone pole. The sparrow flies away and the crow gives Chase and one of the sparrows buddies flies after to assist. 5 minutes later, Mama Kestrel flies right in front of my deck. It has caught something and I can hear it's cry of distress. She flies to the top of the pine tree where she starts to pluck feathers from it. wow that's so fucking cool
May 28 2022- Two squirrels climbing to the top of a hydro Pole, the same pole where I have seen the kestrels perch on occasion. I've never seen squirrels climb this pole before. The whole kestrel family have been dive bombing these squirrels. Maybe they have a stash there that they are trying to protect. That would be the only reason why the squirrels would be going there.
May 29 2022- A flying V of geese flapping by as the sun was going down, and a medium sized butterfly zigzagging along in the same direction, towards the setting sun
June 2 2022- No sign of the kestrels for the last few days, though there has been a presence of crows lately. They had even been checking out the pine tree, specifically on the branches where the kestrel had brought some of its prey. Perhaps they’d forced the kestrels out. Such a shame, although I knew if the chicks were flying now, there’d be no real reason for the kestrels to stay in the area. I’m glad to have seen them and that I’d recorded what I’ve seen.
June 5 2022- Kestrels seem to be long gone now. A bunch of seagulls have been hovering around the area for a while. They are looking for something. Put on my hearing aids this morning because the sparrows are really chirping up a storm. Sometimes I am in awe at how much I miss when I don't wear my hearing aids. A cardinal is somewhere nearby as well.
June 8 2022- Three robins attacking a black squirrel in the poplar trees. Squirrel is desperately parkouring from branch to branch while the robins frantically divebomb him from all directions. The squirrel can’t use the trunk of the tree to hide as it usually would because the trunk is so smooth it can’t get a grasp on it, plus there are three of them. Obviously the squirrel committed some kind of transgression against the robins’ nest and is receiving due justice.
June 12 2022- A new bird in the neighbourhood. The size of a small robin, grey with a black crown, wings and tail. Google suggests this is a grey catbird, but I’m not certain because some catbird pictures it showed has a longer tail. Maybe it’s a juvenile? Cute little thing though.
June 13 2022- A pair of little red squirrels chasing each other in the poplar tree. One seems to be a mature adult as it has more coloring on it, such as a white belly and throat. For some reason I want to call this adult Minzie. I thought that was only one little red squirrel in the area and they would often make an appearance scuttling along the telephone wires behind the house come up and now I am seeing more and more. I am so glad to see them in the trees pulling off their insane parkour moves leaping recklessly from tree to tree. The catbird is back as well and I have noticed its tail is indeed long which confirms it's catbirdness.
June 14 2022- Young (med. size) raccoon has climbed the poplar tree and is trying to negotiate its way down its smooth sides, being very dainty and cautious about each step. Minzie squirrel scurrying across the telephone wire shoving past a robin that was perchedin front of it, much to the consternation of the robin. Catbird makes another appearance in it's usual place, on the fence in front of me. I think there are two, a male and a female - the male with a longer tail (?)
Later that evening - I caught a glimpse of a bird that I thought looked like our kestrel from the way it was flying. A few seconds later, a crow flew by and the bird flew up along this Crow then divebombed it falcon style. Definitely our Kestrel. Later on, I see two large birds flying at a distance. Judging by their short necks and blunt faces I'm assuming they were two owls. It's the first time I've seen owls around here, much less a pair of them. Also a robin and a catbird were having an altercation on the fence in front of me.
June 15 2022- The robins are having quite enough of the squirrels here. A black squirrel was tight roping his way across the telephone wire while a robin was fluttering underneath trying to peck at its feet. I've been hoping to see a Kestrel this morning but none have appeared as yet
June 22 2022- Five starlings all approaching around a light post. Menacing a robin at the top. Finally one starling harasses the robin away. The other four then try to join him on the perch and he just pecks them to go away. What a bunch of jerks
July 2 2022- Catbird remains in the area come up bringing food to a nest somewhere in the thicket of the
wooded lot. When it arrives, it perches on the fence and flutters its wings like a juvenile. I wonder what this behavior means. I also note that cat birds shit prolifically.
July 12 2022- Verified there are two catbirds here now. I am assuming a male and female as one is certainly bigger the other, though one could also possibly be juvenile offspring.
I also sighted a single firefly tonight. It was quite a coincidence because I was just looking out off the deck and hoping to see one and there it was. Serendipity!
July 14 2022- A crow morning. Several crow's arriving in the area. Some with tail, wing feathers missing. A couple seemed to be tussling on the roof of the building behind me. At one point there were four of them together on the fascia, surveying the neighborhood. More soon gathered together hidden from my view but once in a while going to the edge to look around.
July 16 2022- slept so much and went to bed so early last night that I was fully awake at 4:00 a.m. trying to get back to sleep to no avail. So I decided to get up and experience Beedahbun, the sunrise when the spirits are said to be most active. Sit outside in the darkness and listened to the home of air conditioners all around me, until I heard a faint chirp. I thought I'd better put on my hearing aids. As soon as I did I heard the frantic call of a cardinal. I couldn't believe I had been missing it. When I took my hearing aids off his call disappeared. I have been missing so much. So I sat and listened to his call, and then heard a crow that seemed to me answering back to him. After the Cardinal flew away there seemed to be more crows arriving and arguing with him. As the lite built in the sky, I tried to find where the crows were but I could not see them anywhere. They were often the trees elsewhere in the neighborhood. I cried a little bit from realizing how much I had been missing. The street lights went off and the world turned orange as the sun broke the crest of the horizon.
July 21 2022- Windy tonight. Five crows probably tired from fighting the wind stop in one of my poplars. They are still jostled in the swaying branches yet they poke and nudge at each other like hyper teenage boys. Finally they stop in a sturdier pine tree for a spell then carry on
July 25 2022- Two ravens, one in the pine tree, the other on the roof, with their delightful raspy croaks.
July 26 2022- One crow on the highest branch of an ash tree, calling out continually to three others on the apartment roof. When two from the trio flew by me, they almost collided and the larger one growled at the other, making me think it was a raven at first.
August 25 2022- Tree theater has been very quiet these last few weeks. Crows have flown by, but not stopped anywhere near me. The cat birds have moved on. There is a black squirrel that has become adventurous and started up my stairs while I was sitting having my coffee. But not much of note as actually happened. Today there was a raven that flew by with a crow. I don't know if the crow was harassing the raven or not but I can assume that it might have been, being what they are. I could tell their distinctive voices.
August 28 2022- the first V of geese flew very low overhead of the house. They were all very noisy and it seemed like no one knew which direction they really wanted to go and they kept splitting up and trying to regroup. Airborne chaos
Sept. 3 2022- Saw Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal together for the first time. He arrived first and perched on a wire then she arrived swooping very close to him but landing in a branch of a young poplar tree above him. Both content with at least being in proximity with each other, though it was only him that would turn a twitter at her and regard her in any direct way. I personally hate that dynamic.
----------------------
July 6 2023- I wasn't going to write anything this year, but something very dramatic happened this morning.
The crows seem to be inhabiting the area more this year, which is nice because I barely ever saw them at all last year. Every morning when I sit outside I force myself to sit and observe for a few minutes out of respect for my surroundings. I almost feel like the spirits have something to show me each morning and I should indulge them. So this morning I did that, and being a little later in the morning I thought nothing was going to happen so I picked up my phone. In the moment I did that, a crow appeared and was flying directly at me and seem to change direction only when it noticed me sitting here. I took this as a the sign and put the phone down to be vigilant.
A couple minutes later, I heard a crow crying petulantly and then saw it fly directly in front of my balcony. It had something in his beak, but I couldn't make out what it was. Directly behind the crow were more crows, all pursuing the first, obviously trying to steal its prize away. They looped around the poplar tree and started flying away from me. As if having heard the commotion, some sparrows joined the chase. Apparently this was a big deal. For the next few minutes, crows and sparrows were flying all around and another Crow flew by with something in his mouth. Perhaps it was the crow that had retained his prize or it was another that had stolen it.
July 15, 2023- A squirrel has been frantically leaping from branch to branch, grabbing leaves and stalks of leaves aggressively this morning. I notice it's continually going back to the same spot in a crotch of the poplar tree. Is it making a nest? It makes me laugh every time it leaps from the nest to a branch on another tree. So agile and yet funny looking. It also makes me happy because now I know this squirrel is going to be hanging around.
November 22, 2023- Some very sad news. Yesterday when I returned home from work, I was met with an invasion of machinery tearing out the wood fencing surrounding the wooded lot. It seems my landlord has decided he wants to take all the trees and brush out and lay down some grass in their stead. He had mentioned it to me a few years ago and some workers had actually taken out a couple of the older trees that were threatening the phone wires that are drawn across the lot. I'd asked him to leave the two adult poplars and he did, saying that he would be clearing out the lot to make a lawn with a gazebo in the future. It never happened, until, evidently, today. I left for the gym for an hour and a half and when I returned the machines had made short work of the lot, tearing out essentially all the brush, including both my beloved poplars. I was shocked. When I trudged up the steps and looked back on the devastation, I felt like crying. Ever since my arrival at this apartment in 2017, I felt such solace looking out on this beautiful collection of trees and the characters that visited and lived in them were a constant source of entertainment. There was always such peace there. Now, the neighbour's piles of pallets and defunct cars are bare to me and at night, the full klieg glare of the new apartment complex behind me assaults my eyes. I feel like a cushion has been removed and the harshness of the urban world can reach me undeterred now. There is nothing to rest my eyes on anymore, nothing to ease my mind when I sit out on that deck. I have a girlfriend now and we will be moving in together in the next few months. I thought I would have to let that beautiful wooded lot go, but it seems stolen from me now. This will make the impending move easier, but I feel like I may never have a vista like that again. I'm glad that I kept this journal and that I've taken a few pics when something caught my eye. I will miss it.
