A familiar trill rang through the afternoon yesterday as I was outside. Two black birds high in the early budded sugar maple chatted and sang a true anthem of spring. Their notes bring me back to the thrill of adventuring in the boggy meadows behind the house I grew up in on the North Shore of Massachusetts. There were flocks of blackbirds there every spring – and the songs they sang along with the wind through the reeds and the cattails created a magical soundscape that’s etched into my DNA as an old timey recording would have been etched into a wax cylinder. This being New England – the moment I hear said true anthem of spring – there’s 7 inches of snow on the way today – one of the more significant snow falls this season since the freak storm on Halloween. At times like this – I am reminded not to take my reverie too seriously and to keep in mind the admonition of Louis Armstrong….
Life is a jazz riff baby,
The Gods are laughing at us.
To hear a clip of the red wing blackbird – follow this link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Happy Leap Day!
