Nesting Season

The time of year has come when it is hard for bird lovers to concentrate on almost anything. Sit down and try to type, and there are ravens making absurd hooting noises in the pine tree over the house. Go out in the backyard and there are Red-shouldered Hawks screaming at each other up the hill, scrub-jays carrying twigs and sparrows pulling grass. The male wrens are dancing on the fencetops and the male hummingbirds are doing their shooting-star routine. Everyone is nesting, breeding displaying. And of course it isn't just the birds. Frogs incessantly sing their one-line resumes. Squirrels chitter with more vim than usual. Young women prance around campus in too little clothing for the still chilly air. Plum and cherries trees engage in shock-and-awe advertising war against a billion other flowers in the fight for the affection of bees.

It is hard to sit inside and type.