Tuesday, February 3, 2009

One Night Three Dreams


1) I was in northwestern WA state, at the coast - on a beach. It was either nighttime or predawn. Giant rocks loomed a hundred feet to either side, silhouetted by a star-filled sky. There was a light source (I never saw it); focused, strong, like a spot light coming from behind as I faced the water. It shone mainly on dirt-colored sand in a thirty or so foot swath. The water: calm, some ripples but no waves. A kayak (and paddle) appeared, I climbed in and began to move slowly out to sea. A few hundred feet out I made a starboard (right) turn, paralleling the beach. Cormorants and gulls flew by distantly; none close enough for specific ID. The prevalent emotion throughout this part was wariness, bordering on fear. [I am irrationally "uncomfortable" in open water anyway, and without light it becomes more pronounced.] I couldn't have gone far because the next thing I know I'm in a suburban neighborhood. I can see the water and shore through silhouetted trees (pines I think). I'm too distracted by concerns about whether or not I was trespassing, or would be perceived as such. Owls and passerines were in the trees, but I made no IDs. I then came to an opening in the trees. They perfectly framed the beach, stars, rocks and faintly moonlit water. In the distance large, dramatically beautiful, thunderstorm clouds were heading this way...

2) [If you are a birder and live in Austin, or have birded here, you are probably familiar with "Hornsby Bend Biolsolids Management Plant" - known colloquially as simply "Hornsby". Adding "Bend" is optional. As you drive in, to your right there is a fairly sprawling administration building among a grove of pecan trees. In this admin. building is Austin's "Center for Environmental Research" - the C.E.R. For a few years in the early noughts, this was a common hangout, for several birders, especially after a Hornsby property survey or hawkwatch. Thus is this dream's setting...]

I was hanging out in the C.E.R. at Ho
rnsby, talking with some folks/birders - dunno who. I didn't actually go birding in this dream, but a lot of birders were coming and going, both into the C.E.R and to the pond road circuit. So much fluttering usually means the birdin's good; whether it be spring migration, or some phenomenal rarity's been found and is easy to spot (something Hornsby's pretty famous for). What the helter-skelter was about here never played out...


3) [Note: one of the more difficult-to-remember of all my recent bird dreams. If you can figure why please share with the group. 


I was talking to a local, Austin, birder about my bird dreams. FWIW: this is the first time I've had a dream about dreambirding. I was also intermittantly journaling about said bird dreams - on loose leaf paper. In a moment of irony, I thought how I was missing an opportunity to bird while I was writing about something that happened when I normally wouldn't be birding. We've all been here right?... Anyone?...



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Hornsby Bend is my favorite birding spot in Austin. My daughter and her family live in hutto, so I go to Hornsby every time I visit! Here is a shortcut to a discussion on my blog about my first visit there.
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/DDolan1075/9826/Hornsby+Bend.html

 

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