Fall morning

In the early hours, there's a different world outside. I've been helping out some local bird banders and we usually open the nets before dawn. It's been hard sometimes, because I'm jealous of my free time (I help band up to four days a week then work in an office the other three) but often it's worth it.

Yesterday I woke to frost sparkling under a bright moon and the outstretched arms of Orion. We couldn't open nets until after dawn, so I was there to watch as a shaft of light hit a frozen net which breathed vapor into the cold air. Fall mornings when the sun rises after a frozen night, the trees release clouds of leaves to float down and coat the ground like snow.

In the office we're surrounded by the hum of machines. We navigate environments made for and by humans. Outside the world breathes.