Wild Brid

When I was little, I was obsessed with birds and wanted to learn only about birds. I read field guides, and made fake bird magazines-- the most popular of which was entitled "Wild Brid." I invented new species of birds (brids?) with extravagant names like "Double-breasted Towcheet" and "Tufted Radinal." I'm sure the names I came up with as a 5-year-old are a lot better, but we are going to roll with the stunted imagination of a nearly-burned-out 24-year-old and call shit "crested chipperwills" all we like.

Even better than bird names, are the textual descriptions of their songs. Here are is a classic:

"Chew! Chew! Too-whit? Too-whit? Too-whit?"

And that would be a cardinal. Let's try another:

"Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!"

Of course you're right! That's a chickadee, during winter. I could be totally wrong about this but I know that chickadees have two distinct songs-- the latter and then also a song that I could only whistle for you in person. To me, it screams "SUUUUUM-MMMERRRR!!!!!" but not in any literal sense. Just because I love to hear it in some sort of field situation when it is sunny and warm and green.

Here is a loop that gives examples of both songs, and I guess they describe my summer song as "fee-bee." Whatevs.

The point of this bird post is that during my Sunday phone conversation with Mom, she told me she saw three Juncos perched somewhere together-- and I realized I hadn't taken note of a single Junco this winter.

These little nuggets of bird make the winter almost adorable. Observe:

And my goodness they are plump!

And they don't seem to mind winter one bit!

So those are Juncos, but let's try to imagine what kind of fun they have in the Spring! Because that is coming very soon!