Aves

". . . the magic of birds, how they bridge cultures and continents with their wings, how they mediate between heaven and earth."
- Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge

As the sun rose pink above the Sierra de Santa Rosa, we followed Chava through the encino trees and brushy meadows, looking and listening for birds. We learned new names for familiar friends: the robin is primavera; the barn swallow is golondrina. And Chava introduced us to new birds: the carpintero melanerpes formicivorus (acorn woodpecker) with its red-capped head and gleaming black back; the ojito de lumbre junco phaeonotus (yellow-eyed junco) with its red-splashed back and bright eye set in yellow. And I thought of the red-winged blackbirds and the sandhill cranes calling out to the morning along Silver Creek, at home.