Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
(Part 4 of Sometimes by Mary Oliver)
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| Male Indigo Bunting |
I rode my bike to the local natural area early this morning to look for the Indigo Bunting I heard yesterday. They nest here every year, but I haven't seen one for a while. I sat patiently and quietly and waited as a Field Sparrow and House Wren sang nearby. A Cedar Waxwing landed on a nearby tree, and an Osprey and Great Blue Heron flew overhead. I could hear the Indigo Bunting, and finally, a flash of blue passed to my left and landed on a treetop. The male is such a beautiful bird in the spring with bright blue plumage in the sun. It changes to mostly brown by autumn. Cornell Lab describes the blue appearance of blue birds:
"Like all other blue birds, Indigo Buntings lack blue pigment. Their jewel-like colour comes instead from microscopic structures in the feathers that refract and reflect blue light, much like the airborne particles that cause the sky to look blue."
The weather has been hot, humid, and unsettled this week, so I headed home a little after 8 AM as the temperature rose. Several bird nesting boxes near the park entrance are generally occupied by Tree Swallows and House Wrens. I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair of Eastern Bluebirds nesting between the Swallows. I haven't seen a Bluebird here for five years. I blame aggressive photographers with big lenses and no love of nature for chasing them away. I watched a man set up his fancy gear two metres from a Bluebird box a few years ago, stressing the bird greatly as it tried discreetly to feed its nestlings. This Bluebird was in a different spot, and hopefully, people will give it room and observe from a respectable distance.
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| Male Bluebird- the female is in the box feeding their young |
I paid attention and was astonished by another natural event this week, prompted by a daughter who is very interested in astronomy. Jupiter and Venus met in conjunction on June 9, 2026, which happened to be a rainy evening here. But we went out on June 7, 8 and 10 and got a good view of the planetary event. Mercury was apparently visible near the horizon, but we did not see it, likely because of our late sunsets as we approach the summer solstice. The conjunction was seen in the western sky as the planets were setting.
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| June 7 |
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| June 8- Jupiter on the left, moving below Venus |
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| June 10- Jupiter is right below Venus, a day after the conjunction |
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| June 8 - The Becka's telescope was set up in the local school parking lot |
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| June 8- I am protected from mosquitoes and taking a close-up view |
I could see three of Jupiter's many moons through the telescope, and Venus was in a crescent phase rather than full. The telescope attracted some interested young people who asked to see through the lens. While the planets were easily visible with the naked eye, the telescope offered a more detailed and interesting view. Looking through a telescope increases awareness of Earth's continuous rotational movement. You can point the telescope and centre a planet in the viewfinder, but within ten minutes, you have to readjust the lens as Earth's position changes.
Pay attention...be astonished...tell about it.
I love Mary Oliver's poems, her wisdom and keen observations of nature. "Sometimes" was published in 2008 in her poetry collection, Red Bird, when she was about my age. The seventh stanza in the poem reads,
one corner or another.
This doesn’t amuse me.
Neither does it frighten me.
After the rain, I went back into the field of sunflowers.
It was cool, and I was anything but drowsy.
I walked slowly, and listened
to the crazy roots, in the drenched earth, laughing and growing.
Mary Oliver, while aware of her mortality, did not die until 2019. She didn't stop writing about the everyday things she observed. I hope never to become weary of learning, growing and sharing astonishing observations.
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