The sound and feel of a deer tongue licking my ear for the salt at five AM sleeping on the beach at the Asilomar in Pacific Grove with the breakers on the rocks close by. (I used to sleep there instead of the barracks and will never forget that morning.) The loud purr of my 20 yo cat Liz on my shoulder while I sit in front of the computer and Max on my lap meowing to be brushed. The lonely cry of a red tail hawk flying over head. The raucous conversations of the wild flock of parrots that fly over the neighbor hood every evening. The buzz of a hummers wings as it dives when I get too close to the nest up in a tree. Our doves in the morning and bourkes in the evening in the aviary. The sound of a fire with some cedar or juniper in the mix popping and whistling. The trains that rumble by two blocks away twice a day and their whistle at the crossing. Icicles dripping and sometimes falling from the roof ledge when I lived in Iowa. The crunch of snow under foot when delivering the Des Moines Register at 4:30 AM and my breath as it froze in the scarf around my face 1962, 3 and 4. The echo of the slightest sound when hiking in the painted rock canyon in the desert. The wind across Pinyon Flats east of Idle wild as it rushes through the 5 needle pines and the water in the stream half way up the mountain from Hemet where alders grow in the middle of the stream. Disney Land and Knots Berry Farm shooting off their fire works every night at 9:30 in the summer. Haven't been there since I quit in '87.

I can see it as if it was in my backyard. Thanks for the sight and sound of a windstill summer midmorning.

Jeanner, I am glad that you caught my mistake on the Song Sparrow (not a chippie) I realized that I had typed Chipping, after I had posted. An of course there is no edit feature. Thank you. Bob

Great shots! The second one is a "keeper". I was raised in southern ILlinois and there are meadow larks there. I haven't seen meadow larks since coming to Wisconsin over 40 years ago, except during an occasional visit back to Illinois. I do miss them.