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Monday, July 7, 2008

Cordilleran flycatcher—the one note songster


Each morning as we ate our breakfast, meditated, walked and wrote,
a small olive brown flycatcher with a promient oval eye ring, perched outside the meditation hall and persistently rang out a one-note version of his song, 'tweep'.

I found him on a perch in this same area each morning, which was also the scene we looked out upon as we walked in meditation around the deck. This was a meditative writing workshop, a sit, walk, write workshop with Natalie Goldberg and Sean Murphy at Rose Mountain retreat near the Santa Fe National Forest in the Pecos wilderness of New Mexico. The photo below shows the deck where we most often walked. We take our feet for granted. At least, I have. Our feet ground us and balance us and they feel. I am not a barefoot person in general, but this slow walking, this meditative way of experiencing the moment in movement, grounded me in my feet. I felt the cold puddles of water after the rain, the firm cracked surface of the boards, the forgiving lump of a tiny pine cone, the uneven board edges that moved, the nails that my feet rolled over without injury. This walking grounded us to the earth and back into our senses after our minds had been quieted through sitting mediation. Aware walking--one of many profound experiences.

There is more to a flycatcher's song than just one little note but this was the note he repeated over and over again, spaced out and persistent. You can hear it with less pause beween notes at the end of Cornell’s recording of the Cordilleran flycatcher. Bird identification for some species is complicated, especially from a distance. It is the song and the location of the bird that often settles the matter. In the case of the western flycatcher, the species has been divided into two kinds according to breeding location and feather details that can’t be seen casually. And so, I will offer this identification as my best guess.

Our little flycatcher friend was all fluffed up the morning of these photos because we had thunderstorms and rain during the night and the morning air was brisk. In fact, we were all fluffed up a bit.

4 comments:

  1. The retreat and the deck look heavenly. What a beautiful place to meditate.

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  2. Yes, both the place and the mediation held much peace and depth. The real challenge will be holding onto what began there, bringing that centered respect and openness into everyday practice.

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  3. I have so missed dropping by, I love the paragraph on walking, being in the moment... one of my favourites is just to sit, just to sit & listen (really listen) in the bush...your retreat sounds (and looks)so beautiful

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  4. Hi Abbey,
    I'm so glad to hear from you. The walking was entirely new for me and so enlightening. Our feet are wonderful, reliable and sensitive. I got so much better aquainted with my own while walking in this peaceful, meditative environment.

    We also practiced noticing our environment with our senses while walking. The silence was profoundly wonderful on the mountain. And that encouraged listening deeply. Each sound I heard seemed so clear and special.

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