rant whine 'splain espouse: Looking up

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Looking up

It was only a few weeks after I moved to SF and started working downtown that I realized something I missed already about having previously always lived in more rural (okay, suburban) places.

I was taking one of my daily break-time exploration walks around the neighborhood of my office, and I passed a large ivy hedge that grows up a chain link fence near a parking lot on Clementina, when I was struck by the sound of a songbird. I suddenly realized that I hadn't heard a bird in The City yet.

I've since passed this hedge numerous times, and I almost always hear that little bird singing. At least I presume it's the same bird; Olya assures me that songbirds are territorial, so I assume it nests in the ivy. It's a nice sound to hear, especially when sounds of nature are so rare here and so often in danger of being drowned out by honking horns, trucks lumbering by, and the disrupting sounds of almost constant construction.

Yesterday, on another walk late in the afternoon, just as the daylight was waning and the sun shone orange-pink-red on only the uppermost floors of the tall downtown buildings, I noticed that hundreds of small dark birds were zipping by in huge swarms, about 150 feet up, seemingly heading toward the Bay. Migratory birds, I thought, heading south for the winter? I'll have to ask my birding expert.

It's funny how few people look up in cities. I like looking up. Buildings, rooftops, wires, interesting clouds. And even birds. I probably look like a tourist half the time, walking around as if I'm gawking up at all the tall buildings in the Big City. But who cares.