Yesterday was as good as spring gets – the air light on the skin, lilacs perfuming up the joint – so Hardcore Jim and I went out for what we call Old Man Birding. Which translates to driving over to Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and parking at the various hotspots – Halcyon Lake, the tower, Consecration Dell (a.k.a. Conservation Dell) – and leaning on the car while we listened and looked. It’s not the best way to bird, but the waves of migration are finally hitting their peak, and we saw 32 species, a fair enough pull. Here are the highlights and the movies they reminded me of; if you don’t care about birds, watch one of the movies.
Black-Throated Blue Warbler
Dapper little gentlemen with their neatly tucked pocket handkerchiefs, they always make me think of butlers, and the best butler in the movies (pace Robert Grieg) is probably Ralph Richardson (below) as Mr. Baines, flawed hero to an ambassador’s worshipful young son (Bobby Henrey) in in Carol Reed’s gripping moral suspense drama “The Fallen Idol,” ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2, for rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube).
Northern Parula
They kind of look like postmen, no? All right, maybe not, but who needs an excuse to revisit “Il Postino” (“The Postman”) (1994, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐), the charming, bittersweet Italian fable about the friendship between a rural deliveryman (Massimo Troisi, below, who died the day after production was completed) and poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret). Not officially available on VOD, but there’s a semi-acceptable copy on YouTube for the time being.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
“Run Lola Run” (1998, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2, for rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube)
Black-and-white Warbler
“I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang” (1932, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐, for rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube)
Blue Jay
Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson” (2017, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐, streaming on Amazon Prime Video), the best movie ever made about a bus-driving Zen poet.
Yellow Warbler
“La La Land” (2016, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐, streaming on Netflix, for rent elsewhere.)
Painted Bunting
Okay, I didn’t see one of these, but I wish I had.
Ryan Gosling in “Barbie” (2023, in theaters July 21.) Enough said.
Thoughts? Don’t hesitate to weigh in.
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