I keep forgetting to post this, but for the past couple of weeks, Tulsa has been inundated with great flocks of black birds. As I drive to work every day, I see them flying in huge masses, like thousands of specks against the sky, or scrunched up together along power lines. They look like they’re playing musical chairs — for whatever reason, one of them will decide he doesn’t like where he’s sitting, and he’ll fly to a different wire and settle in between two other birds, forcing everybody to hop down a little bit to make room. Then a couple of other birds will decide to move, and another row of them will have to shuffle over to make room.
They’re really funny. My favorite is when there will be a huge gap on the wire, with room for maybe a dozen birds or more, and then in the middle of the wire, there will be a space that’s just exactly too narrow for one more bird to fit, and instead of sitting somewhere along the huge gap, the newcomers will invariably insist on squeezing themselves into these little spaces so everybody else has to move to accommodate them. I have no idea why they do it. Sometimes I think they’re just huddling up for warmth, but I’ve seen them do it when it was nearly 80 degrees outside, too, so I think maybe they just like creating a stir.
It’s been cooler lately, and the leaves are finally turning. They’re really beautiful. Especially the maple trees with bright orange leaves. If I have time Sunday, I might go down to the arbor garden at River Parks and jog a few miles. I need to make at least some pretense about training, since I’m supposed to run two half-marathons later this month and haven’t been out jogging in ages….
Emily
Red Fork Hippie 