ornithology kerry i wish i knew anything about identifying birds besides the obvious–a cardinal, a blue jay, a robin, etc. i know a dove by its cooing and a woodpecker by its relentless hammering, but very little beyond that. iz took an ornithology class when she was a kid and she can identify so many birds by their songs, the shapes of their wings, the rhythm of their flight. i also took an ornithology class in high school but i don’t remember much besides the fact that my teacher had a square shaped head and round glasses that made him look much like an owl. he seemed to take a lot of joy in teaching, sounded excited about everything he told us. this morning i was pouring myself a second cup of coffee and looking out the kitchen window when i saw two birds dancing above my neighbor’s trellis. i wouldn’t know the front of their house but our back patios are separated by an alley and concrete walls maybe six feet high, and i hear them–the neighbors, not the birds–sometimes laughing and talking out there. they’ve painted the back of the house yellow and put up strings of lights. the trellis appeared during the winter. i wonder what will grow over it this year. the two birds were joined by several more. they perched on the power line and on the trellis and one of them had something white in its beak, part of a tissue maybe, and when they sat, they were perfectly round. they gathered and flew up together choreographed like a ballet, then dispersed, then plunged back down in harmony. how to identify them? i landed on: gray and brown soft-looking round singing things. 220306 ... past an enduring memory from living with an ornithologist is the time a group of them gathered in the living room comparing the regional calls of black capped chickadees to different singers and genres, and then, as the wine flowed, doing their best renditions of the call. 220306 what's it to you? who go blather from