Spring’s Cheerleaders
Purty, purty, purty! yip, yip, yea! Sweet, sweet, sweet! Winner, winner, winner! Ch-ch-ch-ching! The nice weather has brought lots of front porch time where I’ve been listening to a symphony of birds and putting words to their songs, like when my young neighbor Rowan put words to the squeak in my easy chair rocker: Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Yes I can!
I have a theory that the birds sing spring into bloom, that their encouraging songs coax the buds to open and make my daffodils and tulips happy. It’s not such a surprising theory, considering that some studies have shown (The Secret Life of Plants) that plants grow best when exposed to positive thoughts and good music and that they shrink and shrivel from negativity and discord.
Today I discovered that some birds sing in Spanish and others use African clicks. I can’t translate those songs but I enjoy them just the same.
April 5th, 2010 11:05 am
That is a lovely thought, Colleen—that birds sing spring into bloom. Who knows? Perhaps it’s that…and our collective yearning—the prayer in our hearts that grows louder as winter goes on. Whatever the reason, I’m so happy to see (and hear) it.
April 5th, 2010 1:26 pm
I so agree. The spring concerts and folk songs and quartets are the best.
April 5th, 2010 1:54 pm
When I stop to really listen I am amazed at the variety of song even one bird has and have started hearing it as a language.
April 5th, 2010 2:00 pm
The birds are a composer of some sorts…..I wonder if this is how some of our great songs came about!!
April 5th, 2010 3:26 pm
I love your theory. There is no reason to assume that plants are not like us. We are made of the same star dust. And we thrive on positivity, so why wouldn’t they?
I have the misfortune of having a grackle nest in my front yard bradford pear. They run off all of the song birds, and all I hear all day is “aaaacckkkk! arrrgggghh! eeeeiiicckkkk!” Even crows have a prettier wretch than those birds!!!
April 5th, 2010 7:47 pm
this is such a happy whimsical idea. I’ll never listen to birds the same way again. Thanks.
April 6th, 2010 2:44 am
There is a bird that drives me crazy with its repetitive song in the summer. I think it’s a phoebe and I don’t remember it now but soon will. At least we have woodthrush too!
April 7th, 2010 9:43 pm
We’ve begun to sleep with the windows open, and nothing starts the new day more wonderfully than the growing chorus of song that begins at about 5 a.m. It reinforces that we are very much alive, and the new day awaits.