Spring is on the move here in Texas. Everywhere are signs that the weather is changing.
This robin came quite close to my window one morning. In a few more weeks, all the robins will return north, so now is the time to enjoy them.
This Carolina chickadee shocked me one morning. I’d never seen one before. I didn’t even know there were any here in Texas! His small size surprised me - he was tinier than the tiniest house sparrow. And he was so fast! This was the clearest picture I could manage to take of him.
A male grackle. These birds look a little ominous with their jet black plumage and large size.
I caught this male house sparrow chirping contentedly in my mother’s bald cypress. We have lots of these little cuties all year round.
I’ve been taking long walks down the streets this week on sunny days. While I’m out, I enjoy the fresh, crisp air livened with the voices of a thousand birds. Now that warm weather is on the rise, all the mockingbirds are continually singing, reminding me of these lines by Shelley.
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Higher and still higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire,
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest…
What objects are the fountains
Of thy happy strain?
What fields, or waves, or mountains?
What shapes of sky or plain?
What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?…
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
Click here to listen to this mockingbird.
We have large flocks of red-winged blackbirds. In the morning, I wake up to the male’s shrill choruses of “konk-ka-roo, konk-ka-roo!” Most of these will fly north to raise their young in a month or so. This male I photographed was particularly vocal.
Click here to view a short video.
A male cardinal sings from the top of a nearby Bradford pear, warning other male cardinals to stay out of his territory, which sometimes is as large as a square mile. Cardinals are my absolute favorite songbirds, and now that our trees are growing larger, we’ve been getting more and more of them.
Some like to rejoice in the sun with singing. Others…well…others enjoy lounging.
Our neighbor’s horse, Bonnie, sleeping in the sun.
Every Bradford pear on Seattle Slew Lane has bloomed, filling the air with a light, delicate fragrance. Bradford pears are actually bad trees for this area. They are over planted, and don’t stand up well to our winter ice storms, but in the spring they make up for their shortcomings with a beautiful display of white blossoms.
Flowers everywhere are beginning to bloom. For a month now we’ve enjoyed the tiny purple blossoms of winter vetch.
We have dandelions everywhere. These are often the first source of nectar in the spring for butterflies and bees.
Best of all, our redbuds are on the cusp of being in full bloom. Red bud flowers are lovely…
Our neighbor’s daffodils are in full bloom as well.
I wandered as lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in a never-ending line
Along the margin of the bay:
Ten-thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company;
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had bought;
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Woodsworth
