John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019 – It was the day before the autumnal equinox, and I noticed the Barn Swallows were gone from around my home. Perhaps it was oversight and they had been gone for a couple of weeks. Regardless of the exact timing of their departure, when the harbinger of spring departs, autumn is near.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Summer
John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019- “On June 20th, about 20 minutes before the summer solstice, a long day of work was complete. As I was leaving and looking westward, a large bird flew over. It may have been the tiredness, but I was sure it was a Barn Owl chasing the last few minutes of spring as it flew toward good hunting grounds.”
Finding Happiness Through Sharing Nature
John W. Garbutt – Class of 2019- Over time, I learned to find happiness alone through nature. A majority of the learning has been from behind the camera’s viewfinder, the eye piece on my binoculars; and through contributing to the chapter’s monthly newsletter, Shaking the Trees.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Spring
John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019- It was near the end of February when my sister brought up the imminent arrival of Barn Swallows. Usually the first migrant, the avian harbinger of spring arrives in early March. A couple of years previous, I had seen my first one on the last day of February. It was a day or two later that my sister had the same experience with a February Barn Swallow.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Winter
John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019-
It was the first day of winter. It felt like winter but still looked like autumn. Christmas was a few days away and I knew with the forecast that it would feel like spring by the time I arrived at my parents. Like Irving Berlin in 1940 on that 80-degree Southern California winter’s day, I also dreamt of a white Christmas.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Autumn
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- For me, in my youth, I always began thinking of autumn as something in relation to football and Thanksgiving. Now as an adult and birder, the season begins with migration in August. On the morning of the 16th a steady stream of Upland Sandpipers called above on their journey south. It was as if they were attempting to pull the sun lower in the sky and shorten the days toward autumn behind each subsequent wave.
A Favorite Place
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- It is a place that you wake at 0100 for so you can arrive before sunrise. At dawn, you set out on the trail, the day’s trailblazer, the brim of your hat cobwebbed. Canyon Wrens great the day with song. An elk bugles in the distance.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Summer
John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019- I have always found irony in that on the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its northern most location in the sky, it provides the longest amount of daylight during the course of a year and that the subsequent days get shorter, yet hotter as we long for fall by late August.
My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Spring
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- I never really looked forward to spring being a lover of winter’s cooler air. Then I got into birding and in turn began paying attention to the natural world. I now look forward to the plant’s subtle signs they are awakening from their winter slumber, the behavioral changes of the resident birds, and for the arrival and passing through of neotropical migrants to our area.
My Summer Goodbye to the Night-Herons
John W. Garbutt, Class of 2019- It was a warm and windy Fourth of July. As I approached the pond, the sound of Chimney Swifts and their successful broods greeted me. Arriving at the pond, I hoped to see the fledgling Yellow-crowned Night-Herons exploring for the first time.