Marcia Bonta

  • The Masked Bandit

    It is late afternoon on May Day, and the masked bandit is standing on the stoop of our veranda door. He looks around alertly as I speak to him. “What are you doing here?” I ask. He doesn’t seem inclined to move or to answer. After all, he’s only a songbird who sings “witchedy, witchedy,”…

  • Vulture Days

    Last September once again I missed International Vulture Awareness Day. That was on September 7 and my husband Bruce and I were celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary in the province of Quebec. Specifically, we were sitting six feet away from the largest common gannet colony in the Western hemisphere, watching them fighting, mating, tending young,…

  • Eastern Wood-Pewees

    During warm August days most songbirds are quiet. They are molting and stay hidden from potential enemies. But the eastern wood-pewee drawls his plaintive “pee-ah-wee” song. He, it turns out, doesn’t molt until after he migrates. Without his songs, our August forest would be almost silent.