I’m in New Haven on the rooftop of the garage. You can see old buildings, church steeples, even a little of the harbor. I park up here because of the view. Instead what catches my eye, pigeons: Wheel dip turn! turn! turn again! Overside of the wings, underside (Snap!) Blueblack (Snap!) White –
Too fast…
Falcon. Two Falcons – ZOOOF! – Right behind the flock.
The pigeons cut right, up –
Down ‘round behind me – Over my head, in front now
Split
Half of them left, half to my right half – Falcons divide, follow
FuShhhh!
All gone.
They’re below the edge of the roof… Can’t see anything now…
Falcon! Up up up, stands on his tail – Stalls – Tail feathers curve – Flips, falls back –
Straight down!
And I know what I’m looking at: Battle of Britain.
The falcons rejoin, glance at each other. The angle of the head, a look; a silent paragraph that passes between them. Neither made Ace today. The pigeons, intact, trickle back to their perches. The falcons head off, in tandem, a pair of Spitfires returning to base. Except, falcons have none of that, would never do that. No hunger – physical hunger – No hunt. We could learn from falcons.
Emily Dickinson says “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Plato says, we are featherless birds.
We need to grow our own plumage.
May be we will.
Field Note
The eaves of city rooftops are the preserve of pigeons. Shed the usual associations. Stop. Look
at them. It’s a surprise. They are varied in plumage and even the more common morphs with
their iridescence and subtle grays and purple-blues are beautiful, as is their cooing. They wheel
and turn when they take to the sky, the white underside of their wings flashing. And when they
want to they can fly straight line at just under a hundred miles an hour. That wheeling and
turning, is for predator evasion. The complex pattern and the unpredictable course serves to
confuse. Needed, because pigeons attract hawks, and falcons. Even if you are well-versed (and I
am) it’s easy to forget (which I do). When the reminder comes it is never at a place or time you
expect.
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A show of Mark Seth Lender’s photography, “The End of the Ice,” is on display at Artevistica
191 Middlesex Turnpike, Chester
On hiatus until Feb. 6, then Saturday & Sunday, 12 to 5 PM or by appointment
art@artevistica.com