First Bird

Mom's doing chores

The past few months I've been having fun noting the first bird I hear or see each day. In summer this often happened before I even crawled out of bed. The honey locust by the window is popular with passing avian creatures.

Sometimes I didn't know the call and raced downstairs to go out and look up....and usually miss whatever it was. More often than not though, it was some familiar flycatcher or the Carolina Wrens.

Now that it is winter, first bird doesn't usually occur until I have been up for hours. And then it is generally a Black-capped Chickadee or a Tufted Titmouse. Today it was a flight of Canada Geese.

I'm gonna help

Thinking about this, and working on a Farm Side about introducing Miss Peggy to the wonders of nature got me trying to remember what my first bird ever was.

And I can't. I suppose it might have been a House Sparrow on my Grandma Montgomery's lawn. They were called English Sparrows then, but by whatever name....we call them Sassenachs around here...they were ubiquitous pests just like today.

Could have been a Rock Pigeon. They were just pigeons then. Or maybe a Robin. I just don't remember, although many milestone birds stand out....the Barn Swallows in the barn at the house on 5S. Barn Owls ditto, the only Barn Owls I have ever seen. 

That Cardinal on Dad's feeder that really got me interested. The Anhinga in Georgia that puzzled us all day back in the 70s when I was lucky to have one well-worn field guide. I have a box full now, and read them like novels. The Great Grey Owl on the picnic table in Medicine Bow National Forest. I will always regret not having my glasses on yet when we saw that one.

But not the first bird.

Hey, Ma, I got this

 I wonder. What will Peggy's first bird be? I am going to make every effort to be sure she knows as many as possible. With all the feeders in the yard and the wild lands all around us, it ought to be a good one. If it isn't a pigeon or a Sassenach.