Tuesday morning as I was eating breakfast on the porch, I had the privilege watching two white crowned sparrows in my lawn. They were beautiful plump taiga (boreal forest) white crowned sparrows. One was hanging out on the brush pile where I stack the kindling brush for next fall. The other was nearby busily eating dandelion seeds from newly closed flowers. It is a treat to see them come through on their migration north.
Yesterday, or the day before, my friend George Raterman called me with the news that he had a red-winged blackbird in his bird feeders. This morning my feeder was overrun by a mixed flock of starlings and red-wing blackbirds. It’s a definite early sign of spring for us nature lovers and bird watchers. Even in a mild winter like this one, we are glad to see it, even if the bird seed does disappear quickly.
I was reminded that it is September by the scene in my backyard this morning. A migrating flock of robins was busy feeding on the lawn. Many were young robins. An occasional starling was mixed in the flock. Farther in back of the house is the sweet-corn field, recently disked in. It holds numerous flocks of geese this morning picking up a good breakfast.
For a couple years now, men from Community Wesleyan have been organizing a fishing retreat in the Adirondacks on July 4th weekend. This year, Rhett LaForte asked me to bring the message at their Sunday morning service, so I decided to go with them. The retreat was at Forked Lake and required us to boat or canoe to our campsite. I love to canoe and fish and just be in the Adirondacks. Just smelling the atmosphere—that hemlock, pine and spruce laden breeze—adds a week to your life, I think.
This was a real joy for me. Canoeing on a new lake, new mountain vistas, bird watching—I glassed a pair of yellow-rumped warblers, and just relaxing made the retreat well worth the effort. There was also the joy of growing friendships, sharing meals, working together, chatting around the fire, getting to know each other better, and building bonds among the six men who went (Rhett LaForte, Shaun Harrington, Bob Kipping, Ben Mackey, Dave Schwarz, and me). Perhaps the greatest joy of all was working with the four boys that went along; helping them fish, teaching them about boats and canoes and tenting and outdoor life; the joy of passing down what you know to the next generation.
Part of a retreat of this type is meeting the challenges.
What says spring like counting the returning birds? Last weekend, I went for my neighborhood walk (about 1 mile each way) and counted robins. I was rejoicing to report a total of ten. The most I had seen before was one here or there. But today, things had definitely changed for the better. I counted 38 on the same walk! Yes! Gardening must be just around the corner!
Grackle on my bird feeder this noontime in spite of the piles of snow!
Looked out and saw a red-wing blackbird on my thistle seed feeder this am at the tail-end of this big snowstorm. A few minutes later he also visited another feeder where I use a mix of seeds. Lewellyn Troast reported seeing some of them down by the canal last week.
Big news here. I saw the first robin in the treetops of my backyard yesterday! I think he was lost.
