Some Summer Birds Stay Behind in Winter.

The summer birds are gone: the warblers, fly catchers, orioles and goldfinches have all flown away along with most of the ducks. We do have some remainders, though. During the last one hundred years, the cardinals and robins have learned to stay here in the upper Midwest and endure the harsh winters. So, they stay and make me pay attention to them during my morning walks.

We had a strong frost this am but a few mallards float defiantly in the bright sunlight on the ponds that I frequent .Canada geese waddle around on land, determined to pass the winter with us, too. There is not an abundance of food but somehow these winter residents eake out a living.

Yes, the crows are crowing and the Blue Jays seem always to be scolding. The chickadees flutter around close to me and hang on the bark on the sides of trees.

The snow birds (Juncos) haven't arrived yet but soon flocks of them will liven up the scrub bushes and barren paths.

Summer is dying and the bushes are losing more leaves with every breeze. But, the birds are still here. And, so I will get up in the morning and see what they are up to.

 

Canada Geese Honk at Dawn.

"Not 'Canadian Geese' but 'Canada Geese,' please!"  With these words
I was corrected by a friend who tries to save me from embarrassing faux pas.

Regardless of what you call them, I think those geese are elegant looking in flight. Even on the ground they walk around with a confident air and are presentable in their formal blacks and greys.

Most of our geese (I live twenty miles from Chicago.) are gone now but some, of course, stay the entire winter. Locals feed them at a small park close-by where Canada Geese honk on and off during even the coldest weather.

Their "honk-honk" and an answering "honk-honk" tell me that a pair of Canada Geese are up there flying, even if I can't locate them right away this morning.

I hear and identify many birds by their calls and songs. I don't always see them. The high-pitched, sharp, location call of a Cardinal is easy to identify. Everyone knows the "caw-caw" of a crow.
The chirps of  house sparrows are omnipresent. (What a big word for such a small bird. And, perhaps I should reserve that word for the presence of the deity.)

This morning at dawn I first heard, then saw two Canada Geese flying over my house. They lifted my spirit somehow and made me feel part of something bigger than myself. I wasn't alone at dawn.  Others were waking, taking flight and honking for life.