Your Source of Vitamin N (Nature) CONTENT INTENDED TO INSPIRE, UPLIFT AND COMFORT!
Seeing a robin was often considered a harbinger of spring. However, robins have become quite adaptive and are now considered partial migrants. In the warmer months, they prefer worms and insect larvae. In the winter, some stay and become nomadic. They fly in flocks, often in the hundreds, to find food that is available to them in cold, even frigid, temperatures: native fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. They are much quieter in the winter. While some robins do stay all year round, their melodic, repetitive song, is often the first welcome birdsong of spring .
If you don't have this app yet, install it! It's free and available for both Android and IOS. It will identify every bird that it hears and will display a color picture of each. Here is a list of birds that we heard in 13 minutes at 9:30 a.m. this morning in our Phoenixville yard: red-winged blackbird, gray catbird, song sparrow, eastern towhee, starling, cardinal, blue jay, Carolina wren, white-throated sparrow, house wren, brown-headed cowbird, robin, red-eyed vireo, broad-winged hawk, house finch, red-bellied woodpecker, Baltimore oriole, and great crested flycatcher. Pretty amazing, don't you think? Thank you to the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, Ithaca, NY.
IN PRAISE OF THE UNATTRACTIVE! Who has ever looked at a turkey vulture and thought, "Now there's a beautiful bird." The wingspan can be 5 - 6 feet and, because of this, it might look elegant in flight. Up close, it's a different story. However, I consider turkey vultures the environmentalists of the bird world. They are primarily carrion eaters, meaning they feed almost exclusively on dead animals. They use their keen sense of smell to locate and consume bodies of animals that died of illness or infections without being infected themselves. Their bald heads prevent carrion from sticking to their skin. They fit perfectly into nature's plan.
EARTHRISE (from NASA.gov) In 2021, William Shatner took part in the Blue Origin space flight at the age of 90. His experience and his reaction are noteworthy. He saw space as a cold, black emptiness that filled him with overwhelming grief. Then he turned to the light of home and experienced earth as Gaia, a warm and nuturing home, our true Mother Earth. He said, "It reinforced tenfold my own view of the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart." His story is beautifully told in Variety.com (10/6/22 issue)
THE GOOD LORD BIRD! This was the title of an award-winning book by James McBride. The book's title comes from a character in the book who sees a pileated woodpecker and exclaims: Good Lord! A "Good Lord bird" can be any bird that surprises you with its presence and its beauty -- such as this striking bird that we unexpectedly found singing out in the open: an eastern towhee. Once you recognize their call (sweeeet) and recognize their melodic song (drink your tea), pay attention to your surroundings! You might be fortunate, as we were, and you will have the right to exclaim: Good Lord! It's spring, which means it's time for you to find your own "Good Lord bird!"
