Spring Songs

In spring, there is no need for concert halls. Birds are beginning their courtship now and music is everywhere in the air. Song sparrows, living up to their name, are trilling melodiously, and robins are too. An English old wives’ tale has it that if the robin’s song is long and loud early on spring mornings, it signals rain. Pleasant as it is to hear the robin’s melodies, it would be preferable, so the folklore has it, if the robin sang from the top of a tree — and not too early in the morning. A treetop song is said to be a harbinger of fine weather. Of course American robins may follow different rules.

Red-winged blackbirds are chirping konkareeee-konkareee these days. White-breasted nuthatches are calling whi-whi-whi-whi and chickadees sing out chickadee-dee-dee. The cardinals, like the song sparrows, are trilling. The saucy Carolina wren is calling enthusiastically. There is the ever melodious background cooing of mourning doves and a new insistence to the pecking of woodpeckers. Even the cawing of crows has taken on a springtime lilt.

And there is more to come. Pine warblers will be warbling before long, and crested flycatchers will be calling quitta-quetto-quitta. Time to set aside the iPod when taking morning walks, tuning in to all the woodland melodies instead.