Brown Skies and Naked Trees

Sharing a world with birds

The sky is still blue and there is only a light breeze blowing. All the birds have shut up and left, their morning symphonies finished. I have often wondered where all the birds go during a major windstorm like what I experienced yesterday. Where do they go?

The sky was brown yesterday afternoon during the windstorm. While walking slanted down the street I momentarily imagined myself walking in Beijing. Of course, the sky was brown here, not because of pollution, but rather because of all the dirt and dust and topsoil being blown into the air by the ferocious wind.

I then momentarily imagined being in the Great Dust Bowl. I was in a different life in a different place at the time so I have no direct nor indirect experience with that epic historical windstorm. But looking around me I got a little taste of it.

But now I am behind the comfort of glass. I can see the tree branches swaying in the breeze but I cannot feel it on my skin. While the sky is still blue now we have been warned that we will have another windstorm later today.

And I wonder where the birds will be hiding. Where do they go?

I have often fantasized about what it would be like to be a giant tree and then suddenly have a huge flock of songbirds land on my…