The Naturalist

I had never seen a robin's egg before, until he lifted me up to see.  I did not know that hummingbird eggs looked like Tic Tacs or that their nests are woven together with spiderwebs. 

Such wonder, and he knew it all.  The other morning he said, "Do you want to hear something terrible?  The old tree with the Great horned owls' nest in it, blew down in the wind."  It was terrible.  He'd been watching that nest for weeks.  Now they were gone.  That tree was not in our yard.  It was five miles away.

Last year's babies.

The Naturalist and His Flock

Patiently he watches,

   with obvious love,

      knows each bird,

         their feather and flight,

         where they nest,

         and when they'll fly. 

In the darkened night

   he hears their call,

       he knows them all 

       not needing sight. 

If such a man,

   only a man,

      can know hundreds, thousands,

       of birds on sea and land, 

How could it be

   that God

       would not know

       the same about

              me.

He knows his flock.