3SIXTY5 for July 27: The Visitor

A very simple piece, for a change, with two of my favorite, familiar creatures:  butterflies, and birds (though cockatoos are not birds I'm personally familiar with.) Yesterday I walked onto the patio and saw a golden and black tiger swallowtail on a potted lantana. Beautiful. There is a family of robins around the buildings where I work, and most mornings lately the adolescent birds have been hopping and bobbing around the lawn, learning to look for bugs, I guess. They are mostly full grown, but still have the remnants of speckles on their orange-y chests. How sad and silent, and alien, the earth would be without birds. Thank you, Rachel Carson!