Top of the Century

A sea of green palmettos. Piercing the palmettos, above the horizon, a branched stalk wavers in the island's dune heat waves. Atop the century plant, a bird is jumping up and floating down: a mockingbird doing a courtship dance.

The bird rises up, hovers, then puts two feet down and wafts gently back to perch atop the century plant. Once again, the bird flies up ten feet. Comes down, sings loudly, and flies up again. The camera clicks. A trill of bold, rapid notes pours out from the bird after it lands. Its mating song carries over the soft sand beach to the teal shallows and out over the ocean.

Listening to a mockingbird dancing on an island, one can wonder: "Are our courtship dances as persistently choreographed as the one by this mocking bird?"