Gray Headed Dark-eyed Junco

We know them as ‘snowbirds’ in Tennessee, little pink-billed sparrows that come down to the valley when it snows in the higher elevations. This gray-headed form of the dark eyed junco, with his pretty rufous patch, visited my tent in the Pecos wilderness one early morning, hopping inches from its screened doorway while I wrote.
We miss something, living in houses, that waking intimacy with nature that comes from being still, from being available. Feeling the brisk morning air, hearing the faint rustling of a foraging junco, the whisper of the wind stirring the pine needles overhead—peaceful moments to savor and take home.