Tag: Doves

“The birds can’t stop singing”

Recently a friend in Ireland, who was having a rare sunny day, expressed her joy by exclaiming, “The birds can’t stop singing!” All the wonder of springtime seemed to be captured in that evocative phrase.

I thought about the empty bird bath in our back yard, which I hadn’t filled since last fall. Throughout the winter, a stray dove or wren would occasionally wander through the yard, but for the most part, they disappeared.

I feel guilty, Gentle Reader. I really do.

So, I filled the bird bath a couple of days ago, and the birds are back. Instead of singing at sunrise and sunset, as the wrens usually do, they’ve been singing all through the live-long day. And the doves can’t stop cooing.

They are very forgiving.

April Contrasts

(The doves were too quick for the camera)

The leaves are coming out on the ash trees. A dove chases another from branch to branch. Soon, there will be a nest. Meanwhile, a wasp lays her eggs under the eaves.

One day is windy, the next is calm.

Today, I am twenty. Tomorrow, one hundred and one.

October Garden

There are a few golden leaves, but for the most part my garden is still having its last hurrah. The lobelia still bloom, as well as the geraniums and my undefeatable petunia plant. Fresh herbs from my pots still grace my culinary experiments.

The doves that abandoned my garden for a few years have now returned with their extended families. Who knows why?

Every living thing in the garden is all the more precious in light of the change to come.

Night Singer

He’s up there somewhere….

A variety of birds grace our garden – wrens, doves, grackles, and a mystery night singer that may be a mockingbird. Like clockwork, the wrens greet every sunrise and sunset with a symphony of chirping. During the day, they swoop from tree to tree on very important business. The doves occasionally coo, and the grackles occasionally screech. From midnight to dawn, the mystery singer chirps, warbles, and trills in a variety of changing, complex patterns. I wish I understood the language of birds. They seem to have a lot to say.