Bird's Eye View

Sitting at the top of a tall tree, the male cardinal sings out his territorial song just as the first light is coming into the sky. It is April and he is letting other cardinals know he has THIS territory for himself, his mate and any young that manage to survive. After a few long choruses, he looks down and sees a figure, dressed in the same red as he, putting a box up, the box with the seeds. He flies down to a smaller tree and the figure hangs the box, turns, looks at him and says something. Then, the figure goes back inside and the cardinal comes down to eat. 

He grabs a seed and jumps atop the iron feeder pole, eating as he looks around for any predators or rivals. His mate flies to a nearby shrub and he takes a seed to her, which she accepts. He flies back to one side of the box, his mate the other. They eat until they are full or something spooks them into the bushes. But they'll be back.

Female cardinal (Margo D. Beller)

In sports there is March Madness. For birders the madness revs up in April, when northbound migrant birds are heading for breeding territories and pass through my area. But this is also when the resident birds prepare to breed. Starting in late March, the birds in my yard have been arriving at the feeders in pairs, two by two like Noah: Two house finches. Two cardinals. Two titmice. A downy woodpecker male comes to the suet, flies off and is replaced by a female. Pairs of robins are walking over my lawn, looking for worms, grubs or insects. Sometimes the male in one pair will fly at the other male, jockeying for more space.

Not long after sunrise you can find me standing outside my back door after I have put out the feeders and water in my long, red robe. The male cardinal comes almost immediately to the house-shaped seed feeder, a hairy woodpecker to the suet. It is good to see both male and female hairy coming because that means a nest has been excavated out of a tree nearby. There was a time I would confuse the hairy with the smaller, similar looking downy. Not now. Other woodpeckers call - flickers, redbellys and the occasional pileated -  and I've been hearing more Carolina wrens calling.

Singing male cardinal (Margo D. Beller)

It is a fine time of year, especially when my many types of daffodils are in bloom. Daffodils are my favorite flower because all their parts are toxic, so the flowers aren't eaten by deer and the bulbs aren't eaten by squirrels or chipmunks. I wish these fine flowers - available in an assortment of colors, sizes, even petal types - grew all year. But they'll be gone soon, to be replaced by other flowering perennials.

When the red azalea blooms it will be time to think about putting out a hummingbird feeder. These birds are drawn to red flowers. As of April 16, according to one website that tracks the migration of all types of hummers in the U.S., the ruby-throated hummingbird (the only one regularly found in the east) has already been seen in the southern part of the state. Another warm day with strong winds from the south and the birds should be up where I live.

There are still white-throated sparrows around with the chipping sparrows singing in my front yard. Juncos are rarely seen now and the catbird has not made it up here yet. Soon.

Hummingbird at a friend's feeder (Margo D. Beller)

Same with the house wrens, so I haven't put out the wren nest box yet. The kinglets, ruby-crowned and golden-crowned, have come, as have the blue-gray gnatcatchers and the pine and palm warblers. Ospreys are on their nests. Fish crows are flying with nest-building materials in their beaks. Even a pair of cowbirds, those parasites of songbird nests, recently came to my feeder.

The recent heavy rain has prompted the oaks and other trees to flower and leaf out. (The maples have been in flower for some time.) Usually the reports of warblers increase once the tree is full of green leaves, making it even harder to find these colorful birds unless you know their songs.

This is why no matter how bad winter gets, how dark, cold and snowy, I look ahead to when it will finally be spring and the daylight will lengthen and the climate warm. But not too much. I am in no rush for summer.