"Osmanthus flowers fall alone;
The blooming mountains are calm at night.
The moon ascends, alarming birds,
That chirp in spring on water white."
("Bird-Twittering Creek" (鸟鸣涧) by the famous Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei)
Rob and I woke up the day before, when the moon was cresting full, to join a Dawn Chorus bird walk with Benni on the grounds of the TBG. At the start of the walk, Benni recited a poem from the 13th century Persian poet Saadi Shirazi:
Late last night, a lone bird moaned at the morning -
I forgot everything - my spirit, my mind
My reasons, my lies...
Nearby, an old friend caught wind of my sighs -
He said - I never would have thought that a little bird could turn you inside-out...
I told him, these things are not for humanity to decide -
The bird delivers its sermon, and I listen.
As we were gathered, a heron flew overhead. Wandering the paths we saw finches, cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, robins, song sparrows, yellow warblers.... and happily, a red tanager.
On May 31, 2026, the night sky featured a rare Blue Micromoon. It was the second full moon of the month (following the Flower Moon on May 1), which gives it the "Blue" designation, and it occurred near apogee (its farthest point from Earth), making it the smallest and faintest full moon of 2026. [1, 2, 3]
No comments:
Post a Comment