The Thrushes have Departed

My favorite part of the Spring and Summer is, hands down, the arrival of the elusive wood thrush. I wrote about their arrival in this post on April 25th. They delight through their lovely flute-like call. They typically sing first thing in the morning, after lunch and in the evening. If you reference the post, and I hope that you will, you will see a picture of the wood thrush and a link to their call. I call them 'elusive' for they are heard, but seldom seen--the opposite behavior of well-behaved children!

They generally leave at the end of July, and this year was no exception. Oddly enough, they've been rather quite over the past couple of weeks--but I heard a call often enough to know that they had not left, but they had their regularly scheduled program off the air except for a few snippets. I don't recall noticing this behavior last year, but it may have been just my not noticing it. I'll be watching that more carefully next year.

On Saturday and Sunday they broke their intermittent call behavior and sang non-stop from morning through evening--not even pausing to take a mid morning or late afternoon rest. It certainly was a joy to hear them so actively calling. I heard them briefly Monday morning. Nothing during the day. Nothing yesterday or today. I suspect that their increased call activity was the equivalent of the train master's "all aboard" call prior to their flying to their over-wintering destination.

Our bed does not have a headboard, rather it is a window--a casement window. And since there is only a hand crank within easy grasp, there is no effort to get it to open or close. If you are a woman of my age with fluctuating hormones, you are grateful for a window so close by. And since there is only a hand crank, it does not even involve any effort to get it to open or close. Hormonal considerations aside, if you want to listen for something, like your beyond curfew child coming home, you can monitor things pretty easily. At about 5:30 a.m. the birds begin to call. It is at that time that I open the window to hear them. It is quite a pleasant way to begin one's day.

I've marked the thrushes' departure date on my calendar. I'll look for them again at the end of next April. I miss them already.