Spring is near

“This beautiful bird is the favorite of many people and is eagerly awaited in the spring after a long cold winter” says the Audubon guide. This weekend among the sounds that awakened us at the Hawksbill Cabin was the musical call of “queedle-queedle-queedle” – a song I hadn’t heard before – so I was looking forward to watching out the window in hopes of spotting what bird had arrived.

Earlier in the week, my friend Bob from Pensacola, who sent the Google Earth Blue Tarp image, told me that he’d had a flock of robins show up in his yard. I figure that normally would put us about three weeks from their arrival here in Virginia, but Mary tells me we’ve already had a flock at the house in Alexandria.

And over the weekend, we ran into the folks from Uncle D’s – who reassured us it won’t be long before we’re opening the pool. Plus, Mickey had been out for some early lawn work, and in the process uncovered the little dewdrops that bloom earliest of all of the bulb plants here.

So I didn’t need much convincing, since the signs were all showing up one by one. I posted myself at the big windows in the living room of the cabin as the sun came up over the ridge and rose above the trees. Soon as there were sunlit patches in the front yard, the birds came – our usual flock of titmice, chickadees, juncos, and downy woodpeckers. Then out came the house wren that lives under the pool.

Flashes of red across the road by the pond indicated some cardinals were around – and I saw both the male and female. Finally, from down the hill, a bright blue flash – it turns out that our visitor is an Eastern Bluebird, and a careful watch of the rest of the yard allowed me to spot his mate. They’ve been uncommon in the last few years, partly because they have to compete with starlings and sparrows for nesting places, but it looks like we may be lucky this spring, with a nesting pair nearby.

By the way, the photo above comes from the Wikipedia article on the Eastern Bluebird. The article there goes into further detail about the conservation status of the birds.