Spring, please...
The weather forecast is a bit gloomy for the weekend – another 7 to 10 inches of snow predicted Saturday through Sunday. February is nearly over and that means some of the first spring migrants will be returning to Wisconsin, like Sandhill Cranes.
No matter how earnestly I try to hold onto those special moments, spring always seems to come and go far too quickly – I consume it with pure intensity and renewal. That’s why I ask fellow birders what’s more exciting, the anticipation of spring migration or spring migration itself?
In The English Patient, Caravaggio said, “You get to the morning and the poison leaks away, doesn't it?” Much of this winter has seemed like one worrisome and continuous black night. The sunrise may serve as a daily catharsis, but spring and the arrival of the colorful sprites is an antidote for all that ails me.
So enjoy this previously unpublished Common Yellowthroat photograph. They’ll soon be on their way back to adorn our woods, marshes and prairies and fill the days of spring with song.
Common Yellowthroat © 2007 Mike McDowell
posted by Mike McDowell @ 6:13 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
This will be my first spring migration since I began birding in earnest, so I'm so geeked up I can hardly contain myself. I have been studying so hard while waiting for the spring, trying to ready myself for some real field work. I feel like someone who's been cramming for a test, and now I just wanting to get it over with before all the answers leak out my ears!
I think I've been waiting for Spring since about January 2nd. Of course, the weather was a bit milder back then but N. Illinois is supposed to get hit pretty hard by this big storm (not as much as Wisconsin). I would have to say that to me the anticipation is almost greater than when migration actually hits. All winter long I try to listen to warbler sounds and learn as much as I can. Then spring hits and before you know it, its summer.
Someday I think I'll just migrate when the birds do. Wintering in the south is looking better and better!
Traveling to the tropics during winter is an excellent antidote to the winter blues, and coming home to chickadees always lightens my spirit. But to answer your question, anticipating spring is one of my great winter pleasures. Especially when the little projector in my brain shows pictures of warblers.
Ain't got no money for travel!
Mike M.
spring itself! waiting is one thing, but once our woods are transformed into a giant concert hall of birdsong I'm in heaven.. I can't wait to hear that 'witchity witchity' common yellow throat- seeing them is icing on the cake for us northerners with color starved eyes. Great shot Mike!
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