Spring in our Neighborhood

     Flock after honking flock of Canada geese in large V's and long lines poured swiftly over our neighborhood and much of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for a couple hours in the morning of March 8.  Beautiful goose music continually tumbled to Earth like rain, exciting those who enjoy hearing the geese.  The temperature was in the 60's under a sunny sky with little wind, the final stimulus that pushed those geese into starting their migration north to their breeding areas in Canada.  That long parade of goose flocks was exciting and inspiring to experience.  It heralded the presence of spring and represented the beauties and intrigues of nature.
     There were other delights of the vernal season in our neighborhood that morning as well.  A colony of over 20 purple grackles was everywhere, including courting in the trees, feeding on invertebrates on the ground and flying from place to place in pairs and small groups.
     Purple grackles are striking with purple sheen on their black feathers, big, black beaks, long tails and legs and yellow irises.  The robust males are particularly majestic when they lift their wings and puff up their feathers in courtship displays to female grackles.  I could hear their creaking, screeching calls with each display.  Within a couple of weeks, this species of blackbirds will nest as a colony in a clump of half-grown coniferous trees in our neighborhood, as they have for the past several years.
     And during that same morning, I heard the courtship sounds of permanent resident, male birds attracting females of their respective kinds to pair up to produce young.  Male mourning doves cooed and engaged in courtship flights with deep wing beats and long glides in circles over their nesting territories.  A few northern cardinals and one each of song sparrow and Carolina wren sang repeatedly from trees and shrubbery.  And I heard a downy woodpecker drilling rapidly on a dead limb, which, for him, was a courtship display.  All that charming bird music was delightful to hear at winter's end.   
     A pair of American robins was on our lawn, as there is every year by mid-March.  The robins seemed mostly interested in eating invertebrates from our lawn, but occasionally appeared to be looking for a nesting site among the taller shrubbery.  I believe they intended to nest here.
     That day, too, little gangs of house sparrows, that lived peacefully all winter, were visiting sheltered nesting sites, and fighting over some of them.  One group of fighting males tumbled into the street.  Good thing for them there was no traffic at the time.
     While all that bird activity was happening on such a beautiful, warm day, I visited little flower beds in our yard to inspect the blooms.  White snow drop blooms, yellow winter aconite blossoms and Lenten roses were all blooming, as they should be by this time.  And our two pussy willow bushes had many furry, gray catkins on them, making our lawn the more interesting.
     March 8 this year was a beautiful, exciting day right here at home.  Most everywhere on Earth has as much nature, or more.  We need only get out to enjoy nature's intrigues.