Word Travels in the Cottonwood

Description

Five herons occupy this one sweep of canopy: a caller mid-cry on the center nest, a neck periscoping up from the left foliage, a watcher half-hidden at center right, and two dark shapes settled on the lower-right nest pretending not to hear. The ripening field shows warm through the branches behind them, and the pale nest platforms float in the leaves like porch lights coming on. Whatever announcement just went out, the whole tree got it. A dense, rewarding frame that gives up a new bird every time you look.