Lucky us ....

While sights like this are not common, neither are they rare in many places such as Minnesota. They happen in the autumn -- at least that is when I have seen them -- and involve thousands of "winged things" such as starlings or black birds and probably other species, as well .... and truly are marvelous to watch. The event is called a murmuration and can involve hundreds of thousands of birds. Should you see one, remember it. Who knows how much longer birds will be here to do it?

"If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time"

Those words form the title and are among the lyrics of a song written by James Beck and William "Lefty" Frizzell and recorded by Frizzell in 1950.

Neither money nor time are in short supply for me at the moment, but glancing through the arts section of a Saint Paul newspaper made me appreciate that fact that probably no one has enough of either to keep pace with entertainment opportunities in and around the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

Upcoming at the Guthrie Theatre in coming weeks, for instance, are these:

The Glass Menagerie

Steel Magnolias

A Christmas Carol

The Minnesota Opera will be presenting The Barber of Seville.

Both the Dublin-based dance group, TeacDamsa, and the Russian Ballet Theatre will be offering Swan Lake beginning Thursday.

There are innumerable authors making presentations and offering readings and holding autograph sessions during the days ahead -- some of them famous and others, well, sort of local.

Being a devotee of classic rock, I simply will say everyone ranging from "newbies" to senior citizens who have been around since the 1960s and 1970s has the Twin Cities on their itineraries. Not to worry, all genres of music will be similarly represented.

Some might argue "sports" are another form of art (not I), so add to this there are six professional sports teams in the Twin Cities representing football, baseball, hockey, soccer and two basketball.

Less exciting, but more relevant, I think, was an article which stated the United States and Canada have lost an estimated three billion birds -- nearly 30 percent -- since 1970. Most of the losses have been among birds which occupy grasslands from Texas north into the Canadian prairies. Suspects are the usual: Habitat loss and more intensive agriculture, and greater use of pesticides that kill the insects birds eat.

So, while we who have enough time and money to seek out our favorite forms of entertainment, we can prepare ourselves for fewer sights and songs from Nature, it would seem.

Lucky us ….