live oak, grackles

[gurdonark]

The live oak trees keep their leaves all winter long, unlike other varieties of oak tree. Last night during my drive home, I saw a huge flock of grackles perched in a set of small live oak trees. Grackles are very dark birds with long tail feathers. In large groups, they make constant noise, like a crowded party. The sight of shouting grackles crowded into live oak trees is a real winter-time marker. The dark grackles contrast with all the Spring and Summer birds we get, which can be much more colorful. Grackles are a bit more funereal, albeit a kind of jazz improv funeral, with a lot of life and hope amid the darkness.

I like the cyclical nature of seasons. There's something oddly comforting in the sheer "coming and going" of it all. One has a sense of place--jonquil in April, pansies in November, a June filled with giant swallowtail butterflies. Grackles in January are a bit less colorful, but they're fun to see nonetheless. Somehow everything seems to mean something when the seasons come and the seasons go. But I always must be careful not to spend my Summer wishing for colder weather, and my Winter wishing for the heat.