A Startling of Starlings

dog racing past

startles one starling

then all

Gorgeous spring day, perfect temperature, light breeze. Now it's newly dark and Venus lanterns one corner of sky.  (Don't forget the transit of Venus is coming on June 5th--a rare astronomical occurrence.)

I think the seed of this haiku came from a reference question I had yesterday about the group name for a particular species of bird. I just love the whimsy and humor of these descriptive words: a charm of finches, a kettle of hawks, a muster of storks and a nye of pheasants. But the pheasants have to be on the ground, no less! 

It's sad because we are losing so much of the wonderful specificity of language to describe the natural world. Check out this interesting list: http://baltimorebirdclub.org/gnlist.html

Nearly every night, Mister Darcy and I walk past a couple of bamboo trees. If we come close to sunset, we always watch the hurried trajectories of tens of starlings coming home to roost all at the same time, some birds landing, some birds swooping up and past (for a better sleeping place or one more shot at the sunset--who knows?) If we come shortly after sunset, we end up startling the poor birds, and I feel guilty for creating a ruckus. And if we come in the nearly dark, one starling shakes the leaves and then either the birds explode out of the trees or they all ignore the transgression and quiet returns. Later, of course, in the true dark, it's complete silence and stillness.