[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Dream Song



All,

The incredibly warm weather has had some big payoffs (mainly through
letting us sleep with every window in the house open in January)! Early
this morning, after falling to sleep last night to the chorusing of
spring peepers along the pond last night, and dreaming of pintails
sometime during the night, I groggily awoke to a sweet song coming
through the bedroom window. I wasn't fully awake at first and it seemed
very much part of yet another dream; the song was very familiar but not
quite right, and I gradually knew that I hadn't heard it in several
years. Then finally, it clicked: a fox sparrow singing right outside! It
didn't sound quite right because I had last heard them singing (often)
when I lived in Nevada almost 10 years ago, where they have a western
accent (and  aren't quite as sweet sounding). Perhaps they have been
singing in my backyard every winter, and I haven't heard them because
the windows are always closed in January, or perhaps, they too are
feeling their oats a bit with the warm temps. In any case, it was a
splendid way to greet a day!

On a slightly different note, I have gained a completely new
appreciation for Cory's shearwaters after watching a segment  ("The Open
Ocean") of the Discovery Channel's "Blue Planet"  series the other
evening. In this segment there  was footage of the teamwork between a
school of tuna and a huge flock of Cory's in essentially annihilating a
school of baitfish. To see large numbers  of Cory's, with their
incredibly long wings, gracefully and agilely "flying" in formation to
depths of as much as 50 feet in pursuit of a meal was absolutely
awesome! I recommend the encore presentation of the series this Friday
evening to anyone who loves birds and the seas. If you do watch, record
it for me; I'll be at a Father-Daughter Valentine's day dance with my
7-year old girl (who was also thrilled by the shearwater footage!)  I
shall never look at a Cory's from the end of the Triple S pier in
Atlantic Beach the same way again.

Take care,

Clyde Sorenson
Clayton and Raleigh, NC
clyde_sorenson@ncsu.edu