Our apartment here is one of six, in an L-shaped building the inside corner of which is filled with a little walled courtyard. Most of the courtyard is in pavers, but there’s a little square garden section with a mature palm and an eight-foot Ficus, along with a groundcover I keep forgetting to notice.
At the center of the courtyard is a fountain, one of those three-tiered Italianate wedding cake deals, in color somewhere between rose and terra cotta but paler. It’s a nice source of white noise: the courtyard seems quieter for its being there. The cat likes watching it through the window.
This morning I went out to check the mail and rousted someone out of the top tier of the fountain. It was a lesser goldfinch, and it was kicking as much water out of the fountain as it could, then fluffing its wings contentedly. Soon it was joined by a few more. They flitted back and forth between the fountain and the Ficus.
Lesser goldfinches are Western city birds. They visit birdbaths in Los Angeles and Fresno, and apparently here too.
Ten years ago last month I watched a ladderbacked woodpecker fly out of the Joshua trees in Pipes Canyon and land on the rim of a bird bath outside my cabin’s window. I resolved that moment to move to the desert and have a birdbath. Here I am, and I’ve got goldfinches. I coulda stayed in Berkeley for those. Nonetheless I stood delighted for five minutes until they got tired of my watching them. They headed out of the courtyard toward Tahquitz Creek four blocks south.
Living in New York City, seeing any birds is a pleasure for me. A Mourning Dove laid an egg in my window box the other day, then left it alone. It looked very luminous and was the highlight of my week, seeing it on the soil. She has returned yesterday, and is sitting on the egg amongst the dried sticks and new sprouts of the thyme and mint. We are moving from the city in three days, back to San Luis Obispo, and I am looking forward to more birds. I have to clean out the apartment, but I don’t want to disturb the dove. I have been furtively moving things out of the kitchen, and will leave the planter on the sill when I go. Hopefully the next person will enjoy the dove’s progress as well.