Hmmm, is there a way to fast forward time and transport myself to Petticoat Creek?
Happy Vernal Equinox day aka the first day of spring. Winter did not have much bite this year and I am grateful for that small mercy. We still, of course, have to get through the last week and a half of March with fingers crossed that a late season storm does not blow in.
But I am already mentally tracing my steps on one of my favourite, early spring birding hikes. I am an unrepentant creature of habit in those things that give my pleasure.
I pull into the parking lot around 8:00 am with rising anticipation. As soon as I open the car door, the morning chorus of bird song washes over me like a long awaited blessing. No matter that the singers are common birds – the wolf whistle of Starlings, name-saying Chickadees and the nasal ank ank ank note of a Nuthatch. It is all sweet music to my ears.
I make my way down the park road and locate the half-hidden trail angling down into the valley. A familiar descending whinny overhead is reason enough to pause. I aim my binoculars upwards and locate the industrious Downy Woodpecker mining for insects on a tree trunk.
Frenetic Kinglets dart through the budding branches as I continue down the path and quickly catch movement out of the corner of my eye. A slim, camouflaged sprite spirals up a tree bracing itself with its stiff tail. No need to lock the binoculars on it – characteristic Brown Creeper behaviour – but I do so anyway to welcome this early migrant.
The path links up with Petticoat Creek where rumour has it Trout cavort in the pool under the bridge. Kinglets accompany me as I continue on through the valley keeping my eyes moving and my ears tuned in.
Perhaps, if I am very fortunate, I will catch the musical, even-pitched trill of an early Pine Warbler high overhead. Always difficult to locate for earth-bound creatures so as I. But well worth the effort to catch the soul-stirring flash of the yellow breast and the white wing bars.
Instead, a familiar churr churr wafts to me on the breeze. Wheels spin in my brain, throwing off winter doldrums, and I make the connection. Red-bellied Woodpecker! A striking sight with its zebra back and red crown, and definitely worth chasing down. A few minutes of scanning and I find it high up on the trunk of a tree on the embankment.
The day is already a success. Everything from this point on will be a bonus as I follow the circuit I know so well – Frenchman’s Bay for waterfowl, Hydro Park for more Kinglets and perhaps a Tundra Swan, the back pond at Duffin’s Creek Marsh which never disappoints as the undisputed best spot for ducks, and finishing off on the Cranberry Marsh lookout deck.
Yes, it is a well-worn cliché. But I never tire of welcoming spring as a metaphor for rebirth, awakening and the renewal of optimism in a world very much in need of it.
Petticoat Creek awaits in a few short weeks. I am counting the days and hours (and even the minutes) until I find myself there once again. As long as blood courses in my veins, I will make the trek there each April to renew my love affair with spring.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: Brown Creeper · Cranberry Marsh · Downy Woodpecker · Duffins Creek Marsh · first day of spring · Hydro Park · Kinglet · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Pettiocoat Creek · Pine Warbler · Red-belled Woodpecker · Vernal EquinoxNo Comments