Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I is for Indigo Bunting

I can’t remember when I saw my first indigo bunting. I’m pretty sure it was before I left DC. Fact is, I hardly ever see them.

If I’m hiking up at Merck Forest at the right time, there’s this field they frequent. Sometimes they are flitting atop some high weeds. More than once I’ve found a male at the top of a very tall pine tree in that field, singing his heart out. I hear this song so infrequently that I’m not sure I’ve ever immediately known it for what it was, but I’ve known enough to think Maybe it’s an indigo bunting and to run toward the sound to find out.

A couple of times, they have stopped at my feeder. This shocks me. First, they’ve left the (OK, very nearby) fields to snoop around town (OK, cluster o’houses). Second, ohmigod an indigo bunting! The color is not to be believed. Third, these birds don’t do feeders. At least not around here. At least not on any kind of regular basis.

I can’t tell you much about what indigo buntings like, other than open fields, high spots from which to sing, and other indigo buntings. This Indigo Bunting likes birding, cross-country skiing, contradancing, skating (ice and roller), snowshoeing, hiking, most restaurants in Portland (Maine), martinis, fine wine, great beer, standup comedy, NYC, quirky TV shows, jazz, books, being read to, Winnie-the-Pooh (Milne only please), canoeing, fly fishing, frogs, toads, red efts, snakes, messing around in boats, elliptical cross-trainers, other people’s pets, all sorts o’ music, hot tubs, exposed brick, the swimming hole, happy hour after the swimming hole, and standing in my driveway looking at the Milky Way. Oh, and blogging. And…

16 comments:

Helen said...

Do you like your own pets?

Indigo Bunting said...

The only "pets" I have are the birds at my feeder outside (I like them a lot) and the mice that decide they like hanging out in my house (that relationship is more complicated).

Sewa Yoleme said...

Speaking of martinis, I think it's time for a chocolate one. No, not right now, since it's 9:50 in the morning, but maybe this evening. Sort of a smack in the face of Lent.

Indigo Bunting said...

SY: I'm off booze for a couple of days, but I will think of you gloriously sipping one this evening!

Deloney said...

Recipe for a chocolate martini, please.

Mali said...

ok I'm showing my foreignness now ...I always figured there must be an explanation to the indigo bunting name, but didn't think of googling to find out ... thanks for solving the mystery to me! Though I liked the idea of a woman called Indigo ... and I had a boss with the last name of Bunting too ... so it wasn't inconceivable ...

Mali said...

PS ... I want the chocolate martini recipe too

Jenny Hill said...

I love red efts!

Indigo Bunting said...

Mali: It's funny, but until I took the IB moniker, it didn't occur to me that it might be shortened. I'm likin' Indigo.

Chocolate martini, to be confirmed by SY: I believe we decided on 1:1 proportions, but the recipe we had might have suggested 3:2 or somesuch. Which was which I can't remember, as I'd been drinking martinis. So it's equal parts Stoli vanilla vodka and white creme de cacao. It's important, as far as I'm concerned, to use only these clear spirits, because it's the surprise of the flavor that's half the fun. Some people use BROWN chocolate liqueurs, god forbid. We also finely grate semisweet chocolate to rim the glass and dust the top.

SY, does that sound right?

JHK: Their existence [red efts] makes me so happy!

Sabine said...

quirky tv shows - I think Corner Gas is now playing in the US. Have you seen it?

Sewa Yoleme said...

IB, or Indigo, or Indy--I think the ratio was 2 parts vanilla vodka to 1 part white creme de cacao, but some recipes push it up to 1.5 parts c. de c.

I completely forgot that I had a writer's group to go to last night, so I couldn't make my martinis. But I read my Open Windows essay, and got some spontaneous applause at the end, which was a pleasant surprise.

Susan said...

You sound so wonderfully fit. I like many of the same things you like, except for the ones that require movement. I love the idea of exercise, but when it comes down to it I prefer a brisk sit.

Indigo Bunting said...

mm: Haven't seen Corner Gas. Will keep an eye out.

Susan: Most of the time, I am briskly sitting (a phrase I will hold onto). Just because I love to do active things doesn't mean I get to to do them often. The best I usually do is 45 minutes on the NordicTrack catching up on some taped TV show, then right back to the computer screen for some more editing. In fact, that will be my day today! (The exercise basically supports my astounding eating habits.)

Cedar Waxwing said...

Cool post. Always good to hear about people whose blogs I read.

What's your favorite quirky TV show ever?

I wish I could see the Milky Way from my front yard.

My first indigo bunting was seen in on Stwarton Road in Mill Run, PA one weekend we were visiting Jay and Janice for a raft trip.

I'd been hearing a delightfully cheerful bird all day and finally followed the sound, with my binoculars, to the top of one of the large trees in their yard. There at the tip-top was the bluest bird I'd ever seen. My friends said it was a blue bird, but I knew it was something more exotic. I looked it up and saw it was an Indigo Bunting.

Otter said...

In NC I seasonly see Indigo Buntings and always with such delight! They do come up to my feeders.

These days though they are absent, usually closer to April they arrive.

Mostly these days my feeders are filled with carolina chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, wrens, cardinals and goldfinches.

Mali said...

I have to report I tried the chocolate martini recipe last night - it was good! Any more recipes??