From Burgess's Bird Book for Children:
On each forehead, chin and a line through each eye was  velvety black.  Each wore a very stylish pointed cap.  They were quite dandified.
A Stranger and a Dandy


When I hear the beautiful whispy mornful cries of the cedar waxwings, I know to look close by to trees,  bushes or ephemeral puddlles where they gather, always in groups together, talking and moving together everywhere.

The first encounter i ever had were two at my birdbath-the most exotic looking bired I have ever seen in piedmont NC.  They are captivating and jovial, despite their sad songs and sound like lovely swingsets in the wind.

 

Book excerpt: Barred Owls and Conical Dipoles

Barred Owls on Evening Walks

On Evening walks , I sometimes hear you 

Call your lady from her sleep

The sun crept below

 the Rollin's Apartment edifice,

She answered beautiful and deep. 

The italianate balconies awaited 

The continuos allusion

of the lovers

 that played me,

Darting by in the night

with a silent swish,

Then away into the wood.

Another evening, I told my love

Conditions would be good.

We then were bogged in a mucky mess

talking of earthly scrabble.

Only to almost miss you overhead

Gazing gently down,

My heart skips with  every encounter.

 So the painting, Conical Dipoles depicts
The Owl's prowess, 
if I were you as adept,
my eyes would be like fists.


 Eyes and ears so like antennae
 to sense and see.
A vision of multitudes of information.


I searched for you both so diligently,
On evening walks to no avail.
Not in your tree from days before 
Or where I hear the call.

Just before sunrise then I hear you
She answered then again.
I saw a pair perched in two trees
Saying their morning goodbye.


She rose like a heart balloon
And you swooped down
with wings the same heart  shaped wings
 lifted you to descend.
You darted quickly away.