I miss the birdies

I haven't heard the flocks of little tweeters going through the trees in ages. This might be good news for the dragonflies - they seem to be hanging around longer than usual, but the resounding silence as I walk to the boats is deafening. Used to be you could almost always hear a Woodpecker somewhere near or far. We even had a family raised right in our yard some years ago.

There's a Spruce hen (Grouse I think) family around. She's got like eight babies, half grown now. I see them, or sign of them, rather frequently. Today there were marks of them digging in the gravel in front of the outhouse and their little dust bath spots down along the trail. She's such a good momma. I really enjoy watching them when I have the chance.

We also had a Robin this spring. Not at all shy, it would come to within a couple feet of whoever was outside in an effort to figure out what they were doing. I tried feeding it but it never checked out my offering - not that I know of anyway. It was gone for a while - sitting I think, and then next time I saw it, there was another. It might have been a chick or a mate, it was hard to tell and I haven't seen them since.

I saw a Gray Jay once but that's it for that. There's usually at least a handful around.

Haven't seen any crows at all, and though they don't hang around here much, I generally see them from time to time as they pass through.

We even had some Swallows early this spring. Three of them, darting around, playing with each other and chasing bugs. They too generally don't hang around here though I wish they would. It's not as if there's not plenty of mosquitoes for them.

And the little ground birdies - I don't know what they're called. There has always been at least one family down near the boats and one or two around here. I found a nest once - such a tiny thing. They're cute little birds that do as much running around as they do flying. I think I saw their tracks along the edge of the water down at the boats today, but I just haven't see or heard them anywhere. They're the birds that sound like you're clicking dice together - that's their alarm call.

It's the happy chatter of flocks of maybe a hundred or more small birds flitting from treetop to treetop that is most missed. The rest don't really make much noise during the course of their day.

Even the big Raven seems few and far between. I seldom see them let alone hear them. They used to come here to play with the dog two or three times a week, and even when the dog didn't play, they came around hoping. Comical birds.

So where are all my birdies? Do I blame the super late freezing weather this spring? Do I blame the super hot weather that followed right after? That's the only thing I can think of that was different. Heck, I don't even recall hearing Swans flying over this spring, but that's not so unusual. They don't always fly over. I hear them most when they start heading south for the winter - them and the geese.

I miss my birdies.