Taking the Post, Singing the Song

My husband and I stand at the kitchen window and watch the return of the Northern Cardinals who have nested in our backyard for at least 5 years. They feed seeds to one another and sing the most beautiful songs. Soon, they’ll build that nest and lay those exquisite eggs.

I discover this video below (from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) about the song of this beautiful bird. The narrator says, “You see that male cardinal dashing across your yard to take up a post and sing its brilliant whistled song.” I’m now watching every day and listening for the brilliant whistled song. I’m told to listen carefully for the “purring” the bird often makes after his song.

I also learn about the “paired structure” inside a bird that lets them produce two sounds at the same time–something humans cannot do.

I remember my friend Sandy telling me, “You never have to worry about being rich; you have the riches of nature always available to you.”

I thought of the Northern Cardinal taking up a post and singing, and I love the idea of that kind of determination to announce spring, to proclaim new things, and to bless a whole neighborhood who hears the song.

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