Earth Day warbling

Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.
          ~Izaak Walton

The yellow-throated warbler!

     One of the great advantages of being retired is that we can take our meals in a leisurely fashion. Our kitchen table sits in a small dinette area with a bay window that looks out into our back yard. It is the perfect place for bird feeders, and when we were married I brought several with me. There are now three feeders set up-- a thistle feeder for the finches and small birds, a large feeder with mixed birdseed for the larger birds, and a feeder that holds two cakes of suet, which they all love.

     I come from a long line of bird watchers. My parents always had feeders in the yard, no matter where they lived, and kept a copy of Roger Tory Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds within reach. I learned at an early age to identify the birds common to the area I lived in, and also learned to identify their songs. I have vivid memories of my father, who had learned to mimic a cardinal's call, engaging in a "conversation" with one. The cardinal, high in a tree, would call, and Dad would answer. Then the cardinal would call again, and Dad would answer.

     Living in a more rural setting has provided sightings of many more birds, some much less common. We have a resident red-tailed hawk who keeps the yard free of vermin. We witnessed two male flickers fighting for the attention of a much drabber female flicker. We have had pileated woodpeckers pecking bugs from one of our trees. We regularly listen to a pair of owls call to one another in the woods. And when Lanny mows the back grass, he is accompanied by a dozen or so swallows that go after the bugs that get kicked up by the mower. They swoop in front and in back of his mower but follow him as he goes. And we have a bluebird family that lives close by. Late last spring we saw Dad, Mom and two babies at the birdbath in the back yard, all together. Hopefully Mom and Dad will return this year to have another brood. And we have had one potential sighting of a bald eagle cruising up the creek, on the hunt. There have been sightings of eagles on our creek several miles downstream, so we have been hoping we'd see one by us. We still aren't sure that's what it was, and remain optimist we'll see one someday.

     We too keep a copy of Mr. Peterson's bird book by the kitchen table, just in case we see a new bird. The book is filled with hundreds of birds, supposedly all the birds that live or migrate (or might migrate) to east of the Mississippi. Of all those, there are maybe 25 or 30 that we have seen in our yard. So, last evening when a little black, white and yellow bird arrived that we had not seen before, we got pretty excited... Quick! Get the book... we compare the drawings in the book to the bird at the feeder. And behold! What is having dinner at our feeder? It is a yellow-throated warbler!!  I looked up information about this bird today online and discovered it is a mostly southern warbler that has been slowly expanding its range north to include central Indiana. It likes pine trees and poplars, which we have in our woods. So, we're hoping we see more of this little guy...

     If all this rambling about birds means I've become an old lady, forgive me. I find such respit in simple things like watching birds at a feeder. Today is Earth Day, so I celebrate our environment with a tale of birds, bird watching, and the joys of just enjoying the portion of God's earth that we live in.  It is something worth celebrating! Happy Earth Day!