Springing forward

On today’s early morning walk to the barn to check cow number 114 (to see if she is ever actually going to have that calf she is hanging onto so jealously,) I heard a veritable banquet of birdsong. Although the sun was not yet up and it was barely light enough not to need the flashlight, I could hear not one, but three, male cardinals pouring forth three different versions of their melodious call. There were blue jays, chickadees in summer mode, starlings, blackbirds and grackles. There was a sparrow that I think was a song sparrow, although his call was a bit rusty, and a white-throated sparrow. Off in the heifer pasture woods, things I can’t identify by call were singing and screaming and tooting and hooting.

Last night geese filed over the farm in V-shaped ranks, echoing their gargling calls across the whole valley. These are not the resident geese that hang around all winter scrounging corn out in the fields; these are the real deal, headed for their far north nesting grounds apace. They don’t even answer the tempting lure of a rest on the river, but just hurtle on by, flock after flock.

The valley fairly pulsates with waterfowl right now; crowds of ducks winnow the air over the house with frantic wings. They do stop at the river. I was kicking myself Saturday when the boss drove me over to gas up the car. There was a large flock of something small and black and white, guddling around right in the shallows next to the speedway.
And there were no binoculars in the car. I am thinking hooded mergansers, but I will never know for sure. We are in for some nasty weather again later in the week, but the birds don’t care. They have declared it spring anyhow.

birds
spring
farming