thankfulTonight they launched from the trees in wild aerial manuvers, like
the pilots in over-sentimental movies about biplane barnstormers.
They sang songs of hope and courage, light whistles, words beyond melody. They sparred with one another, they flew up and down to capture insects, and they congregated in a couple of trees.
We are but an hour south of the Oklahoma border, and it's somehow fitting that the scissortail is Oklahoma's state bird. Prior to our moving north of Dallas, a scissortail flycatcher was a rare treat. Now it is a ubiquitous treat, but a treat nonetheless. The chocolate chip cookie of my hiking life is the scissortail flycatcher. I plan to savor each sighting as if it were the last cookie on offer.