Golden-crowned Kinglet
Toward the end of October I began to hear the high ti-ti-ti calls of Golden-crowned Kinglets, but so far I haven’t yet succeeded in seeing even one. A couple of days ago, on a sunny day in a break between the rainy days that ended the month, their calls seemed to be everywhere, high in the oaks and in the pines. But the autumn foliage – a mix of colors in the leaves still thick on the trees, and the fractured light of bright sunshine made it a colorful frustration, hearing their calls, but not seeing them, catching only glimpses or pieces. Somehow that seems to reflect the season well, when the trees and landscape as we’ve come to know them all summer are thinning, changing colors and falling apart, into something different, stripped down, the constant process of change now more visible and noticeable – and yet, impossible to capture, to hold, to really see.