The Red Wings are back!

    This winter may have been the closest to the midwestern winter of '79 in these past 27 years.  This morning we woke up to the darkness of an early daylight savings time and then, at the Dresser Road prairie, we saw and heard them.  The red wing black birds are back.  They are a hearty bunch, the scouting red wings.  Four guys are back to see what nourishment abounds now that weather is warmer and snow has retreated to patches.
    At the risk of sounding like Tom Brown, Jr., who made it quite clear that one is never to say in his presence, "It's just a turkey vulture," I must mark their arrival.  They are common birds in the spring in these parts.  Red wings were unknown to me in the blue jay and English sparrow environs of my childhood.  So, they for me can never be "just the red wings."  THE RED WINGS ARE BACK.  The red wings are back.  Swaying on the tops of the grasses who are springing back up after snow, or who never went down.
    I'd be delighted to know who's back in your neighborhood.  And - delighted to know who/what is no longer "just a" in your life.

Delighting in the Dresser Road Red Wings
  on this first day of daylight savings time
        double o seven,
Mary McKinney

Comments

[jocelyn]

Well, Mary, I'm in the Midwest, too, and having dodged ornery redwings who decided I walked too close to their nests, I can tell you I’m not terribly excited to see them return. Not that a flash of red across the barren farmland isn’t a pleasure--as long as it’s at fifty paces or so.

As spring arrives, I’m looking forward to many returns: the flitting goldfinch next door like a ray sunlight even on a bright day; the belligerent cardinals whistling as if they lost their dogs; drab little sparrows, perched on roofs and puffed-up against the winter, now lean and indefatigable with building and repair; and of course, along crevices, creepy-crawly things going about their business as if I don’t matter at all.

[Goldy]

jocelyn,
I loved your line about cardinals. How appropriate and poetic. The many feathered friends wing back my spirit after a long challenging winter.
goldy

[nancy]

Hey Mary! Here in New England we wait for lots of migrating birds every year; for us the robin is the first sign of spring. This year I've had towhee's- which look like robins but aren't- in addition to cardinals and jays and sparrows and chickadees and junko's and woodpeckers- and that's BEFORE the great migration arrives. I'm still looking for a real robin as well as your red wings- we have them too in the swampy areas. Mostly I'm enjoying the antics of the squirrels and watching the negotiations at the feeders between the red and the gray squirrels and then between the squirrels and the birds. So far no violence, but a heavy gluttony observed on the part of the gray squirrels.