Mr. Petty Has Left the Building

Mr. Petty has left the building.

The first time I heard his music I was up on a house roof in Ft. Collins during the winter of 1980.  The housing market had taken a big downturn and I had left my soon to be nonexistent carpentry job to go down to Colorado and do some cedar shake roofing.  I left a good teaching carpenter, but also the 8 hour a day country western "so called music" that played on the work radio.  The radio that Buzz, Craig, Frenchie and I listened to was the local rock station or perhaps a cassette tape, if anyone had one that worked.  "Refugee" was playing regularly at that time. It was a great song, but I wouldn't really clue in to Petty's music for a few more years, having to spend some time with punk and new wave.

I spotted just 3 Osprey in the large marsh below the RR bridge.  There were a half dozen or so Yellow-Legs hanging out at the edge of the high tide water along the bends of the Neck River.  The lower marsh was quiet and the only bird of note was a single Black Duck that I flushed.

As an artist I have learned (slowly, due to my dogged self-taught-accidental-yet-stubborn-artist persona) that all of the good art, whether it is music, performance, written or visual, has one thing in common - it comes from the heart, and the heart is where the truth in art lives.  Most of the non-artist public can sense it, even if they can't articulate what they are feeling.  They can spot a lie.

The fall migration started long before most people noticed.  Some birds migrate in mid summer.  The Willets seem to leave as soon as their young can fly and fend for themselves (early August).  Other shore birds from parts north appear momentarily as they pass through.  Most of us equate the migrations with the ducks and geese that are on the move when the leaves begin to turn.

Anyway, Mr. Petty left the building sometime around eight o'clock last night.  He leaves behind an impressive amount of truth.

The bird sightings multiply once I am up river of the stone arch bridge.  I spot several Great Blue Herons, a few more Osprey,a couple of Great Egrets and a Green Heron.  As I go I begin to flush a scolding Kingfisher here and there and as I near the now submerged gravel flats I flush about a hundred Mallard and Black Ducks in four individual groups.  I watch two Kingfishers chase each other for several minutes.  Today as compared to last month, fewer Egrets, more Great Blue Herons, fewer Green Herons, a lot more ducks, more Kingfishers.

On the return I spot a Bald Eagle at the lower of the Big Bends.