By Melissa Fitzpatrick Haylock
To love birds is to know that beauty is all around us, if we just take the time to notice. There is a tree in Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, where I like to walk as often as I can. It’s not a very remarkable tree, really. It’s small, and it bends in an ungainly way. It stands in one of the least scenic parts of the park, between the main road and a concrete path that winds through a large picnic area.
I’m quite sure I never would have paid the least attention to this tree, except for the fact that I was out for a walk in the park last spring, and a flash of brilliant blue caught my eye. I turned just in time to see a male Western Bluebird disappear into a hole in the tree.
This was the start of a magical couple of weeks. Each time I visited the park, I made sure to stop by the tree to watch the bluebirds. When the male and female started bringing food to the nest, I was delighted, knowing the chicks must have hatched. And I was tickled the day I saw the chicks peeping out from their nest.
The chicks fledged. Later, once or twice, I saw immature bluebirds in the area and smiled. Soon, though, my attention turned to seasonal visitors. The Hooded Orioles in summer. The return of the warblers and Cedar Waxwings in winter.
In February, it started to feel as if spring was on its way. The birds were becoming louder, and I had begun to notice many birds in pairs. I saw a male and female Western Bluebird near the little tree where they had nested last year, and kept my eye on the site, watching for signs of nesting. One day, to my surprise, I saw not a bluebird, but a Nuttall’s Woodpecker peeking out of the hole in the little tree. What did this mean? Would it be a woodpecker nest this year? Or maybe a woodpecker nest, followed by a bluebird nest?
We’ve all been ordered to stay at home now, so I don’t know what has happened with the woodpecker, the bluebirds, or the little tree. But I like to think of the birds still there, still going about their business. With less traffic in the city, the air is clean. And with the playgrounds and trails and picnic areas closed, the birds have the park to themselves.
It’s hard to know what the future holds right now. So much feels uncertain. But spring will come again. The birds will nest again. We will be able to enjoy the outdoors again. And there will still be beauty, if we take the time to notice.
Melissa Fitzpatrick Haylock is a speech-language pathologist currently staying at home in Culver City. You can find her bird photos on Instagram @melissahaylock, or email her at melissah_slp@yahoo.com.