Here's a new bird for me and for Floridana Alaskiana. This is the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), a modest bird usually found in forestered areas. There were three or four of them bouncing about this one bend in the trail at Windy Corner. Their singing call sounded a bit like a flute. Quite high pitched and sprightly.
Doing a little light reading on Wikipedia, I learned that the hermit thrush appears in both Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." The species is also referenced in the "What the Thunder Said" section of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. Whitman saw the hermit thrush "as a symbol of the American voice, poetic and otherwise." Having listened to them for fifteen minutes or so on this day, I can understand why. They were extremely energetic and active, and yet elegant and seemingly calm.
A lovely bird I'm looking forward to seeing more of.
Had completely forgotten about "What the Thunder Said." Need to go back and read my Eliot. Thanks.
Posted by: Poietes | Sunday, 12 July 2009 at 08:10 PM
Me too, Poietes. This was a good excuse to break out my annotated Wasteland book, complete with scans of the original handwritten draft pages and Pound's annotations. I do adore that work.
Posted by: Janson | Tuesday, 14 July 2009 at 07:18 AM