Bassmama
05-11-05, 07:37PM
I've been looking for them ever since I saw the trilliam blooming and the leaves on the trees started popping open, but didn't see or hear them until yesterday.
I was out on the boat floating around when I heard the sweet song. Instant recognition caused me to crane my neck & slowly move the boat back & forth along the edge of the river until I finally spied the flash of orange that the male always displays, and it seemed as if everywhere I went on the river, there were more choruses of sweetness trilling around me from above, and I knew that spring is here to stay, finally.
First I look for the robins, but they are now staying all year, so that may no longer be reliable. Then the eastern bluebirds arrive to check out their old nesting boxes from past years, and scope out the new ones that have been put up so they can either claim them or abandon them to the pushy little english sparrows. I have old fencing around my back yard & have 8 nest boxes up, and it looks like one (maybe 2) have been claimed this year. Amazing- especially since I mow the back pasture a couple of times a week all summer.
Next on the scene are the redwing blackbirds at about the same time as the canadian geese, or very soon afterwards.
And just when the leaves have decided to squeeze themselves out of their buds and the spring daffodils and dandelions are madly blooming, the baltimore orioles arrive to repair & rebuild their ornate hanging nests and raise another brood, flashing orange & singing sweetly to each other.
I have learned to call them to me. I stand very still & every time one chirps, I will mimic it with my whistle, and the bird will get closer until it's right over me, peering down at me & probably wondering what's mimicing it so poorly.
I was out on the boat floating around when I heard the sweet song. Instant recognition caused me to crane my neck & slowly move the boat back & forth along the edge of the river until I finally spied the flash of orange that the male always displays, and it seemed as if everywhere I went on the river, there were more choruses of sweetness trilling around me from above, and I knew that spring is here to stay, finally.
First I look for the robins, but they are now staying all year, so that may no longer be reliable. Then the eastern bluebirds arrive to check out their old nesting boxes from past years, and scope out the new ones that have been put up so they can either claim them or abandon them to the pushy little english sparrows. I have old fencing around my back yard & have 8 nest boxes up, and it looks like one (maybe 2) have been claimed this year. Amazing- especially since I mow the back pasture a couple of times a week all summer.
Next on the scene are the redwing blackbirds at about the same time as the canadian geese, or very soon afterwards.
And just when the leaves have decided to squeeze themselves out of their buds and the spring daffodils and dandelions are madly blooming, the baltimore orioles arrive to repair & rebuild their ornate hanging nests and raise another brood, flashing orange & singing sweetly to each other.
I have learned to call them to me. I stand very still & every time one chirps, I will mimic it with my whistle, and the bird will get closer until it's right over me, peering down at me & probably wondering what's mimicing it so poorly.