Food Flight Nest

Bird feeder sketch

Watched the birds at the bird feeder outside the window today and did some sketching. The rain let up for a bit this morning and the chickadees, titmouse, and cardinals all came out. Food seems like such a focus for everyone.  We’ve all been scrambling to collect food like the birds. And like birds caring for young- we only leave our nests to procure some food and run back home in fear of an unseen predator. 

Watercolor of Robin's nest

Robins only keep their nest while raising their young and then abandon their home after the fledglings have flown off. I have an abandoned robin’s nest that I’ve kept in a jar for the last year. Amazing what they can build from scraps.

I’ve been roaming the house today noticing all the nature motifs. The bird in flight on the pillow case, the bears in my daughter’s room, and seaweed pattern on the shower curtain all seem to be reminding me of where I am not. It is artificial to be indoors so much, artificial to keep distances- but necessary.  So attempting interior journeys for sustenance.

At the end of Pablo Neruda’s Birdwatching Ode, he writes -

I love you,

ungrateful ones :

go back

happy to have lived out with you

a moment

in the wind.

So with life temporarily sequestered, I’ll have to see the artifices of nature in the home as a reminder of those moments unbridled outside.