Oh, the birds!

They'd been arriving in dribs and drabs for about a week, the birds. A vanguard of brave water birds, clustered in ditch puddles; bald eagles, northern harriers and owls perched high in the spruce trees, surveying the land for signs of prey; the odd seagull, looking a little lost sailing over the frozen rivers. I imagine these first birds sending confused envoys a few hundred kilometers south, not sure what to tell their waiting friends.

Then, on May 10th, an explosion of song! That morning we had a large mixed flock of sparrows in our yard: white-crowned sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, chipping sparrows, lapland longspurs and fox sparrows. I spotted a warbler I couldn't identify, and heard robins broadcasting themselves from the tree tops. A confused sandpiper touched down in our yard for a brief moment, just as surprised as I was. 

I love waking to bird song each morning. Such a gift!  

A moment I'd like to remember...

From my journal, April 2nd:

A pause in our walk so Aedan can run up and down a little rise in the path, while I contemplate the sun, so high and warm in the sky, not long ago barely able to peer above the hills.  A raven calls from the tree tops. Aedan stops, points, says "bird" in his way. The raven calls again, and my boy answers, crying "Ah! Ah!" with a big smile on his face.

"Hello Darkness My Old Friend"

I find myself struggling a bit with this winter. It might be because we didn't have all that great of a summer. This winter has been relatively mild, which is great for getting out of the house, but that also means lots of grey skies. I'd take a few days of 30 below with clear blue skies, please.

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Of course, it doesn't help that Aedan's been waking up at 5 am these days. That means sitting around for 6 hours before the sky lightens. It makes for a very long, very dark day. I miss being able to sleep in til 9 or 10...that way, sun rise is only a cup of tea (or two) away. We're in the thick of it, though, and I know that it's only going to get better from here on out. Soon, the days will be getting noticeably longer, the sun rising earlier and earlier...

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This last photo is a spruce grouse, in a tree in our yard. There were four of them in there this afternoon. I really love grouse, they seem like such gentle birds, with their soft clucking calls. It always surprises me to see them in flight. Their small wings are powerful, carrying their plump bodies to safety when saucy little dogs named Cilla chase after them in the woods!