SPRING SONG

A song sparrow sits on the corner of the riverside deck and
lives up to its name by filling the morning with melody. 

Spring is in full swing here along the riverbank—with each successive day trying to outshine the one before.

The new crop of green leaves, in a thousand different shades, is coming along nicely. A veritable chlorophyll explosion. Some trees and shrubs are already more than halfway leafed out, their cover already concealing the understructure of limbs and branches. Of course the innumerable sycamores, which lean thoughtfully over the freshet-darkened water like white-robed druids, have barely begun their annual transformation. Sycamores always wait, as if watching to make sure they aren't being fooled by a trick of weather…though perhaps they simply choose to exercise the dignity of a more sedate pace—the pace of a tree whose leaves, when finally fully formed, will sometimes measure a foot across. You call those paltry little green flaps leaves? Nahhhh…these are leaves!  

Now, too, the chorus of feathered songsters begins well before dawn—robins, sparrows, cardinals, titmice, and warblers who've stopped by for rest and refueling on their journey north. In fact, yesterday I chalked up another first-time visitor when a dazzling orange-and-black bedecked male Blackburnian Warbler slid down the cable holding the hummingbird feeder and proceeded to drink his fill of sugar water. He was gone before I could get my camera, but returned a half-dozen times throughout the day, and I managed to snap enough images to be certain of the identification—though not one is usable for posting.

I don't think I've mentioned it, but the hummingbirds showed up hereabouts last week. The first one I saw appeared on a cold (40˚F), dark and drizzling mid-morning. Not at one of the feeders, but hovering just beyond my windowpane, as if miffed at this large fellow hunched over the keyboard in the warm and dry. Since, I've had hummers—mostly males—at the feeders almost continuously.

There's a lot more to report, but I'll save that for other posts. Moreover, I've just noted a very yellow warbler flitting about the big box elder near the front door. Duty calls…

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