The world is a mask that hides the real world.
Thatâs what everybody suspects, though the world we see wonât let us dwell on it long.
The world has ways - more masks - of getting our attention.
The suspicion sneaks in now and again, between the cracks of everyday existenceâ¦the bird song dips, rises, dips, trails off into blue sky silence before the note that would reveal the shape of a melody that, somehow, would tie everything together, on the verge of unmasking the hidden armature that frames this sky, this tree, this bird, this quivering green leaf, jewels in a crown.â¦
As the song dies, the secret withdraws.
The tree is a mask.
The sky is a mask.
The quivering green leaf is a mask.
The song is a mask.
The singing bird is a mask.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
"pieces of blue jay"
Falcon parents greet newborn
MassLive.com, 11 May 2005
MassLive.com, 11 May 2005
SPRINGFIELD - It wasn't quite a Mother's Day baby, but Springfield's peregrine falcons were probably not disappointed.
The first of the pair's four eggs hatched late Monday in the window ledge nest on the Monarch Place office building's 21st floor.
Andrew D. House, a bird enthusiast who is also head of maintenance at Monarch, saw a small hole appear in one egg about noon Monday.
"You could see the beak wiggling around in there. The male brought back food to the nest and was trying to put little pieces of blue jay in the hole to feed it, but wasn't able to get it in there," he said.
A pair of peregrines initially set up house on the building in 1989, marking the first time falcons had nested in Western Massachusetts since the early 1950s. Between the nest at Monarch Place and an alternate nest beneath the arches of Memorial Bridge, falcons have now produced 31 chicks - with three more possible this season - in Greater Springfield.
The Springfield nest is one of four known active falcons nests in the valley, according to Thomas W. French, assistant director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Another falcon pair has a nest atop Holyoke City Hall, still another has a nest on a wild site on the face of Mount Sugarloaf in Deerfield, and a fourth pair is believed to be nesting atop the University of Massachusetts library, he said. In total, there are 11 falcon pairs nesting in the state.
Comcast has been broadcasting events in the nest on channel 15 of its cable system in Springfield using a stationary camera positioned just inside the 21st floor window. The broadcasts will continue Sunday through Friday, 6 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturday, 6 a.m.-3 p.m., until the chicks have flown and the nest is empty.
