Calls of Winter and Songs of Spring
March arrived with warm spring-like, changeable weather – sunny days, followed by days of soaking gray rain, then back to sunshine, blue sky, big white clouds and blustery wind. It’s not weather you can trust, but right now it’s looking like it might be a very early spring. Daffodils, forsythia, redbuds, and clouds of white-blooming trees in the fields, dandelions, bluets and henbit all have spread color over the landscape, and red maples, dogwoods, water oaks and some other hardwood trees are showing the flush of new growth about to appear.
And the mornings begin with birdsong – almost all of the singers year-round resident birds. The first each morning is usually the clear, bright, liquid song of a Northern Cardinal; followed by the jubilee-jubilee-jubilee of a Carolina Wren; the lyrical trill of a Pine Warbler, and the dry, husky song of an Eastern Phoebe. They come one by one, almost seeming to take turns, each coming to the trees outside our windows to sing for a while, then passing on. Then Carolina Chickadees add fee-bee, fee-bay; Tufted Titmice, peter-peter-peter or wreeep-wreeep. And Eastern Bluebirds warble their blurry chorry-chorry.
All of this music is welcome and a spirit-lifting way to start the day – but some of my favorite sounds of this time of year are still the quieter, less noticeable, more subtle calls of winter birds, still here. The Pine Siskins’ strange, breezy zhreeeeee from the treetops, often mixed with the glimmering mews of American Goldfinches. The quick, light, sibilant ti-ti-ti calls of Golden-crowned Kinglets, and the jidit-jidit chatter of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The honeyed, mellow mew of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The tseet of White-throated Sparrows, hidden in the thickets. The airy jingle of Dark-eyed Juncos. The dry check of Yellow-rumped Warblers, scattered like speckles all over the trees and shrubs. A high, thin spray of calls from a flock of Cedar Waxwings. The soft, expressive chrup of a Hermit Thrush.
Add to these the whinny, rattle, quuurrr and peenk of Downy, Red-bellied and Hairy Woodpeckers, the squeaky-dee of Brown-headed Nuthatches, the kleer! of a Northern Flicker, the che-whee of Eastern Towhees scratching up leaves beneath the bushes, the occasional cuk-cuk-cuk of a Pileated Woodpecker, and a Red-shouldered Hawk’s soaring kee-yer, and the clamorous, creaky commotion of a flock of Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds passing through – all against a background quiet of bare-limbed trees and the silence of the insects – and there’s still a lot of winter left, and more to come.