Look Up!

Spark Bird by Cathy Klimes-Garcia

Growing up on a farm in Nampa, Idaho, I was

surrounded by birds and animals every day. My father

always checked the sky for the weather as farmers and

Navy Sailors do. He would say look up, what do you

see? Clouds, trees and birds was the usual response

from me. The conversation would start from there.

My childhood friend and I would play in the out

buildings and run in the pastures and fields with birds

all around. We found a bird caught in a corn granary

and it had been there a few days. Since we both knew

how to handle chickens, we had no fear of catching

this bird to let it out of the granary. We took a towel

and captured the most beautiful Kestrel in the world

“to a little kid”. Those eyes are forever in my

memory. We carefully took it outside and let it go

watching it fly until we could not see it anymore. We

thought we had saved the world.

When Dad would plow the fields in the fall the gulls

would follow him round and round the fields catching

the rodents that he stirred up. I thought the gulls were

smart and thanked Dad all the way with white splats all

over the back of his coveralls.

One of the older ways of cutting alfalfa was with a

long arm sickle. Hay was cut at night because the dew

kept the leaves on the stems and which is nutritious. At

that time we had so many Ring-necked pheasants it

would be odd not to see one every day. In the hay

fields the pheasants would hide during the night. Hay

cutting time meant Mom and I would stay up until Dad

was done cutting the hay - by midnight we would

hope. The pheasants would not flush at night so the

sickle would remove the head. Farming life rules in

my house meant you did not waste anything. Dad

would bring a bucket full of pheasants into the house

and Mom and I would skin and dress them for the

freezer and many delicious meals. I learned the

feathers, wings, tail feathers and the anatomy of this

bird.

There was a man that rode his bicycle all over the

county and trapped gophers for farmers. He knew of

my interest in birds even though I was a child. He

brought me a book that was very hard to read but I still

have that book - AUDUBON GUIDES - introduction

copyright, 1953, I have had it 60 years. Dad would

help me look up birds I had seen and we could read

about them.

For many, many years from fall to spring there was a

pair of Great Blue Herons that would fly in at dusk to

the back of the farm field and stand all night, side by

side on one leg. I always looked for them, sometimes

just a faint shadow in the fog, but they were always

there.

Usually barn owls would roost in the rafters of the

loafing shed above the cows for warmth during the

cold nights.

I have questioned just what was my spark bird. My

spark bird has to be the total experiences of my whole

life with birds around me every day, and it’s not over -

so many birds yet to see.

I never forget to look up.