Some form of meadow grass I think. Everything about grass is lovely, not least the technical language used to distinguish one grass from another. Look at this description of Eragrostis minor, Love Grass. Or read it alound and listen to it. "An annual; the stems 5-30 cm long, branching at the base and somewhat geniculate, The leaves are hairy; the ligule is a tuft of long hairs. The violet-tinged panicle is large and open, with spreading branches, The spikelets are compressed, with five to twenty florets. Glumes ovate, considerably shorter than the spikelet. The lemma is ovate with three prominent nerves, falling with the seed at maturity; the palea is persistent." (Click photo for full view).Girl sitting on bench in a plaintive voice: "I was having a good time. I'm sorry. It's like ...." I hear no more as I walk past, but there is a story there, a glimpse of a life, I think to myself.
Yesterday I hear an urgent and competitive squeaking coming from a tree near The Grove. Today, in The Grove there are the same noises, and an explanation. Three of four young magpies hop about on the grass, asking, almost as a reflex, to be fed. They fly between the ground and the lower branches of trees, but reluctantly. Newly fledged, they have not yet learned to chatter like grown up magpies.
2 comments:
Wish we had Magpies around here.
Closest we get is Crows.
Been watching other (smaller) fledglings dancing in the grass peeping loudly for lunch. Then there is the family of Red Tail Hawks on the Franklin Parkway.
Wish we had red tail hawks which sound altogether a better deal.
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