Yesterday, a group of us visited Petal, MS (my husband takes me to the nicest places! Ok, I’m serious!) to see a visitor to our area who is rarely seen. He accommodated us with frequent songs, acrobatics, and preening. Sound distasteful? Well, not really. Not when you realize that the visitor was a bird, a great bird, a REALLY GREAT bird: the Vermillion Flycatcher.
So we hung out in the cold, damp of an overcast Sunday afternoon watching this magnificent creature fly around a marshy pond, catching insects and generally ruling the roost. Of course, we watched other birds, too, (palm warbler, yellow-rumped warblers, cardinals, Eastern Phoebe, Red-tailed hawks, kestrals, Sharp-Shinned Hawk, blackbirds, and more) but this guy, this rare wanderer to our damp, cold land, held our fascination firmly.
Why here, when this is a western bird, known for hanging in deserty places, liking heat. Why now, when no strong storms have passed through, no winds to blow him in, no wandering females he was chasing? Who knows, but I do know it was great habitat: lots of bugs, protected from most predators, water and lots of room to fly….although he was working hard to eat, he also looked like he was having fun, cutting through scrub, swooping low to the water, and generally entertaining the odd humans on shore. May be the best Sunday I’ve had in awhile.
Today? I was back at work, working on an NEH Grant application, cooking up another NEH project (proposal due next week), but all day — I was dreaming of red…
