Although I couldn’t see clearly as I came along the boardwalk with the sun in my eyes, that reedy whistle was unmistakable. I don’t know if this guy was singing for his supper, but after hand feeding red-winged blackbirds in the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, I wasn’t really surprised that he seemed content to sit on the railing as people went by, quite close.
Subscribe2
Photo Memory of the Week
Posted: 2024 May 11
Tweet of the Week: Mother’s Day Edition
Posted: 2024 May 12
The first sound I knew was your heartbeat.
The first voice I knew was yours.
I learned to gauge my safety from watching your eyes.
I learned to speak by watching your mouth.
Your love for me is almost as endless as my love for you.
Happy Mothers’ Day pic.twitter.com/KVk9KGiSDJ
— Dan Wuori (@DanWuori) May 12, 2024
Prose of the Week
"This is the way of providence: dandelions in abundance that give pleasure by their beauty and create fun for children who blow the seeds everywhere. I think it is a kind of proof of original sin that whenever we are given something in abundance, we are not grateful but instead invent some silly category to tarnish these gifts simply because they are common. We call them weeds: invasive species. . . . If dandelions were only found on obscure Pacific islands, people would book eco-tours to see them, and all the best magazines would contain sermons masquerading as articles on how global warming, overpopulation, warm houses, and free markets threaten endangered dandelions."Source: Being Perfect, by David Beresford; Gilbert Magazine, Volume 24, Number 3, Jan/Feb 2021
Posted: 2024 May 11
Poetry of the Week
The Dandelions
- Helen Gray ConeUpon a showery night and still,
Without a sound of warning,
A trooper band surprised the hill,
And held it in the morning.We were not waked by bugle-notes,
No cheer our dreams invaded,
And yet, at dawn, their yellow coats
On the green slopes paraded.We careless folk the deed forgot;
Till one day, idly walking,
We marked upon the self-same spot
A crowd of veterans talking.They shook their trembling heads and gray
With pride and noiseless laughter;
When, well-a-day! they blew away,
And ne'er were heard of after!Posted: 2024 May 11
Music of the Week
Tweet of the Week
Posted: 2024 May 11
I’m starting a support group for people who didn’t see the Northern Lights last night.
We are valid. Stop erasing our existence
Any joiners
This is our flag pic.twitter.com/sCIpt5rSNn
— Helen Nettleship (@Nettleshippy) May 11, 2024
Notices
All text and photographs are protected by copyright. This site collects anonymous user data for Google Analytics.
Guess they to have become blasé about humans at many of the Florida boardwalks.
Jim R – Yes, they don’t seem to worry much about us. If they do, I guess they stay far away, like the night herons.
Their return to a nearby reedy pond bordering our road is the fulfillment of the promise of spring. This reminder is timely in its own way.
Laurna – I was walking in a bird sanctuary area in Phoenix a few years ago and heard a bird call that I then didn’t recognize. A guy walking past stopped dead in his tracks and exclaimed, “A red-winged blackbird!” As he said, once heard, never forgotten. He remembered them from his youth, lying in bed and listening to them.
Just back from Los Cabos, where as soon as a diner rose from the table, a flock of local birds descended on it. Isabel, I think you might have gotten some wonderful pictures of a row or eight or more birds, all sitting on the back of a chair, facing the table, watching for the human to rise and leave. Some that looked like house sparrows, some apparently from the oriole family, no doubt some from the finches… But I didn’t get any pictures to send to Merlin for identification.
The one thing all of them have is blinding speed when they flash through the restaurant area, apparently aiming at a spot about two inches above or to the side of my face.
Jim T
Jim T – Los Cabos, here I come! Well, not likely, but it sure sounds like fun. Except for the part where you worry about getting smacked in the face in a flurry of feathers.
In our part of the world – Southern Alberta -the red winged blackbird rather than the robin is the true harbinger of spring. That reedy whistle brings lightness to our step and joy to our hearts.
Ian – Interesting. We have tons of RWBBs around Ottawa, too, but not in suburban neighbourhoods, only in marshy environments. Down by the river, that sort of thing. So maybe it’s our first spring bird, too, but most of us don’t see it.