Steve’s prairie haven – home of the Urbana “Morning Chorus”
that birds love.
Transplanted small trees
around our home
are now large,
and at first light, noisy.
Springtime is the loudest.
Breeding has begun.
The travelers have returned:
finches, swallows, robins,
hummers, whippoorwills.
Our dead end rural road
has little traffic even later
in the day–none at 5 am in May.
No sound but bird song:
Coos, chirps, whistles,
call and response.
The choir has no conductor
that we see.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 9, 2013
Views from the Edge 