Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Watching The West Wind

We still have a few magnificently colored leaves in the Stone Wall Garden. These happen to be the leaves of this year's growth on the smokebush. Today is a beautiful day with blue sky and white clouds, but the west wind is blowing. The colored leaves are losing their grip on the trees.

 It's mesmerizing to watch the milkweed seeds with their fluffy parachutes dancing on the wind. Often  they cross the entire garden space from west to east without touching the ground. Occasionally they catch an updraft and fly  high in the air.  A late Monarch butterfly fluttered by on the wind. The chrysalis on the lily cage is gone. The temperatures have moderated , but there almost no flowers left where a butterfly might find nectar.

Later as Ed and I sat on the bench, we saw a hawk kiting on the wind. How amazing it must be to hang there motionless in one spot with the wind holding you high above the garden. As we watched, the hawk made a fast dive into the wind, landing in the pines. We barely got a look at the bird's beautiful, brown- speckled feathers, glowing in the sun, before the crows cawed. Crows consider the pines theirs, and waste no time chasing off intruders, no matter how big they are. The gang of noisy black birds chased the hawk, squawking, flapping, and diving as close as possible, to intimidate the larger bird. They are no match for a hawk when it comes to flying on a windy day. That hawk caught the air current and soared high on the wind leaving the noisy flapping crows to return to their piny woods. We watched for some time as the hawk continued to kite over the garden . Eventually he caught the wind and soared  along the ridge until he was out of sight.

Now the garden is cooling off. The wind has died down.The fluffy milkweed dancers are resting on the grass. The air show is over, but today watching the wind blow in the garden was exciting!

3 comments:

Northern Shade said...

The smokebush has a great fall colour, including the pattern on the leaves.

I love watching the drama of birds in nature. It is so fascinating when you take the time to just sit, watch and appreciate.

Big Sister said...

Reading your blog I could feel the wind, see the hawk and hear the crows. Thanks for the little trip to the bench in the Stone Wall Garden.

Zoe / pearled earth said...

I too can feel just what you've described as I read - very lovely! At the same time that things wind down in autumn, I seem to be holding my breath, wishing I could just pause sweet October for a bit...