TheBanyanTree: variolay!

[Mike Pingleton]

After midnight and we finally retire, we and the fire both down to dull red 
embers.  Tomorrow's paddle requires us to be at least somewhat rested.  We 
squash the few mosquitos that we let inside the tent and then settle, 
shifting a bit, trying to get comfortable.  The night draws in close around 
us as we start to drift off.

Far away, up the valley towards the ridgelines, a barred owl starts in.  
Silence and a few minutes later it is louder, and a second joins in, two owls 
sharing the same space means rounds of who-cooks-for-you and 
who-cooks-for-you-toos, even nearer now, now loud enough to be overhead, then 
fading, fading down the valley as we fade off into sleep.

Fumbling with the tent zipper to step out into the cold night.  Some time has 
passed, but dawn is no where near, only starlight as I stumble away to 
relieve myself.  I'm not alone; somewhere close by a whippoorwill is cranking 
out its three-note mantra.  A moth flutters against my face as I try to creep 
back into the tent.  Trying to fall back into the void, over the whippoorwill 
I hear a screech owl's gurgling scream, like a woman in terrible trouble.  I 
think again about how the folks that settled this country believed in h'ants 
and night sperrits, and I understand why they did.

Morning, then, early.  No sun here in the valley but the light is there, even 
before I open my eyes.  The whippoorwill is long gone to bed, replaced by the 
day watch.  Peterpeterpeter, sing the titmice.  Something else is doing a 
little witchywitchywitchy song.  And the wood thrush is here, as it has been 
every morning since I've been coming here - variolay!  it sings.  It is a 
musical warble, unmatched in the midwestern bird world.  It makes me smile; 
twenty five years of variolay! will do that to you.  What better way to wake 
unto the world?

The world slowly disappears under the pavement, but there are still places 
where you can open your eyes and smile at the morning's birdsong, joyous 
music without a hint of traffic or trains.