The Singing of the Birds
“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song of Solomon 2:11-13
You know that spring has (unofficially) come when the birds return to your yard aside from the year round Robins, Cardinals and Blue Jays. The verse above is one of my favorites. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Last Friday, my girls and I spent the morning watching the birds in the yard. They were every where! Love birds chasing each other, Sparrows looking for seeds. Downy Woodpeckers pecking away at our suet feeder. Chickadees feeding from our pine cone feeders.
And we saw that our House Finches (male pictured above) have returned. What joy!
Friday, however was especially exciting. We saw a flock of birds in our plum tree that we had never seen before. Hannah was the first to spot them. They had some yellow feathers – we don’t usually see birds here with yellow flowers. I was so excited, I ran outside with my camera and snuck down the hill snapping photos as I went because you just never know when you are going to loose your opportunity.
I got some really good photos. Afterward, I came in and we looked at the close ups of the photos and we got out our bird field guide. We were able to identify the bird by its distinct markings.
(notice the identifying marks above: yellow tipped tail and the red tip on the wing)
