Icon of the South

I heard a bob white today…

The morning sun was almost to 90 degrees as I bent down to gather up a bucketful of peaches that had dropped from the trees prematurely. I had almost all the fallen fruits and leaves covered in black spot raked up when I heard the quail. We have so many birds here on Pig Hill due to the bird feeders that I figured I was just imagining things and then I heard it again and again…bob bob WHITE…bob bob WHITE. I remember thinking, “no way”. I dropped my bucket and stood there listening to the sound going ever farther back in my mind as every thought, sight, smell, sound that I had ever associated with the bird came back through my mind…the red clay dirt road between the sandy ditches lined with pine trees and dewberry bushes and huckleberries and saw briers and broom sage and maypops, of seeing families of bob whites whites crossing the road with the hen and rooster in front followed by a cluster of brown fur balls running along behind scurrying from one brushy cover to the next, of feeling the heat and remembering the sun so bright and how I had to squint to see, of seeing myself as a kid again in that time frame and a hundred other details that rushed through my mind of the long ago days.

I followed the sound of the bird call to the front yard and found him sitting in the cover our persimmon tree (the biggest one I’ve ever seen but it bears absolutely no fruit). He tolerated me just up to the drip line and then took off like a rocket. I stood and watched him disappear down the hill into the brush and wondered if he was alone. It has been so very long since there have been bob white quail in any numbers in the South. I can’t really describe the mixture of hope and magic this solitary little bird brought me today. After the initial surprise I found myself completely thrilled and distracted by our unexpected visitor. My mind is still not back to the present and I don’t know if I want to stop the flow of reminiscences just yet. I think I’ll just let it alone and follow where it takes me this afternoon.

Life is good. MC