A powerful sound.

Bottle feeding baby lambs or working in the greenhouse will never become uninteresting to me, but now that I am getting more accustomed to these everyday tasks I finally have some room to discover the smaller details of the farm.

With new babies being born every day, the farm is brimming with animals. But with so much attention on them, I realize it is not often that I stop to think about the many other animals that also share the farm. I came to this realization over the weekend as I was strolling through the orchard and heard the most beautiful of sounds. Between a gurgling and a whistling, the magical noises this bird made were unlike anything I could ever hope to imitate. The noise moved me so much that it made me question why I had never heard it before. With this new enlightenment, I've developed a greater awareness of the birds around me:

On my many short trips down Highway 16, from one side of the farm to the other, I am now beginning to notice the many hawks -- such a rarity in Berkeley -- perching casually by the side of the road.

Also in the past week I’ve been encountering a flock of the most beautiful and vibrant blue birds. They don’t ever stay long enough for me to get a good enough look at them but the flash of bright blue wings which offset a beautiful rusty chest are enough to dazzle anyone.

On my run after work today I passed a juniper tree and upset a flock of doves that were settling in for the night. As I ran by, the tree suddenly seemed to tremble and a dozen white doves burst from the tree in a flutter, making me stop in awe as the tree came to life.