The old saying goes..."Spring is sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the Robins is.” They are here in abundance and I saw one getting ready to choose a nesting sight yesterday, flying up into a tree with some grass in her beak to check out the area. Birds are great to watch and I am an avid bird watcher. Oh, I don't go so far as to join a club and travel many miles to see some special bird in a bird sanctuary. I'm more of a "backyard bird watcher" if you will... I love to sit and watch them from our back porch and have some great memories and stories that include many of my feathered friends.
I have held two humming birds in my hand to get them warm after a cold rain and one who have evidently flown into one of our windows, confused and a little shaky, but unharmed, and as I held them I could feel their tiny heart beating in the palm of my hand, only to open the hand and watch them fly away again. I love to sit and watch them as I cook our evening meal on the grill as they come humming into the feeder, only a few feet away, unafraid and undisturbed as I sit quietly and watch them drink from the sugar water. Some will sit on the perch provided and others will only fly back and forth, never taking the time to sit and rest while they drink the nectar. There are several different families…each coming at their time and all of them being very territorial in who owns the feeder. Some sitting watch over it for a period of time to make sure no other hummer comes to drink and if so, driving them away to keep all the nectar for themselves. Both male and female; each family coming from a different direction to feed and leaving to fly back to the nest in the route they have formulated…some up over the roof and others across the yard into the trees. I have always wondered where they are going and how do they remember the way back for the next drink at the feeder.
Then there are the robins…so friendly and singing for rain at the close of the day or early in the morning as the sun begins to rise. A nest last year in our Japanese cherry tree not that high off the ground; a great place to see them build the nest and rear their young. I could sit on the bench on our front porch and watch the two of them as they flew back and forth bringing worms for a hungry brood in the nest. Watching them as they grew bigger and bigger over the weeks until that day when flight became a necessity as there was no longer room for all four of them in the nest. All winter long the vacant nest reminded me of the rearing of a family of baby robins, now fully grown and probably someplace in Florida for the winter. But now they are back and the whole process will begin again with a new family building a nest in the white birch tree by the garage and a new family will be watched over the weeks to come.
Blue jays with their raucous cries and cardinals who come more at the end of the day with the male feeding his female friend who joins him at the feeder. Titmice who fly in and take a seed to fly up to a branch to break it open and the ever present chickadees who look like little waiters with their black and white suits, who like the titmouse only takes one seed to open and then fly to the branch to enjoy it. English sparrows who seemingly waste more than they eat and who crowd the bar on the feeder in a number that usually makes the feeder close, but when they do feed you can see the bird seed fly through the air as they move the seed to get the ones they want, with the greater portion falling to the ground. Not to be wasted… the squirrels are there to clean up the seeds that fall and the seeds that are missed by the squirrels are devoured by the turkeys that come early in the morning to scratch the ground and find the precious seeds. It's all a cycle of watching the birds, each with their own quality and each with their own pattern that adds to the joy of watching them all.
I feed them all year round, not stopping in the summer, because I enjoy their company all year. They are an amazing group of all kinds of species, but they all bring joy to sit and watch them. They are to me one more of the gifts of God that surround us and I am happy that He included them in His process of creation. Even God's Son talks about them when He says the heavenly Father takes care of even the sparrows of the air and we are worth much more than the sparrow, so will He not take care of us as well? As the old hymn says, "His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me." God takes care of His creation and I firmly believe that He has entrusted that gift to all of us and we need to do a better job of taking care of what He has entrusted to us. We cannot pollute the waters and take away the habitat of birds and other animals and still expect to live in harmony with what He has created. It is for us in the first place, and way back in the book called Genesis He gives us the creation for our benefit but He also calls upon us to take care of what He has created. Too often we take little or no time to look at creation and I think it is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. His own Son lived in harmony with all that surrounded Him and I do not think we should do anything less. We need to stop and look and listen to the birds all around us. We need to watch the clouds slide across the sky. We need to stand and try to number the stars on a beautiful night. We need to watch as God paints a sunrise or sunset to share with us. We need to find the rainbow and hear His promise again. It is all around us, but we need to take the time to get to know it and to know Him...after all the One who created it all also created us and gives creation itself as a gift of love, to you and me.
Taken any time to appreciate the gift lately???? If not, I urge you to do so... IT WILL AMAZE YOU!!!