Return Home to Spring

It is time to return home from Trinidad, at least temporarily, and consider what is happening ... and what is happening is the irresitable impulse to life ... when life not only returns from the winter slumber with zest ... but when everything is about the business, or soon to be about the business ... of the next generations ...

... as for example, those birds that birders pay little attention to except in late March and early April when they are harbingers of Spring, and what is about to come - the blackbirds. Flocks of the blackbirds are flocking to my feeders, but not just to eat. The male Common Grackles pause frequently to display for the females, as these two did on the ground ...

... and in the apple tree.

In reeds along the Connecticut River, the Red-winged- Blackbirds were also displaying - at this point posturing mainly to one another - but preparing for the return of the females any day.

Even their flight from reed to reed displayed their red epaulets in a way not seen since last Spring ...

I'm not one to overlook the little brown jobs, like this Song Sparrow singing with such enthusiasm as he contended with other males in the area and warmed the air waves with his song proclaiming Spring - and oh yes, his superior virtues to any that cared to listen - but especially the females of his species.

Let's face it - Spring is one sexy time of the year!! Not to mention, a time of really good birding!!