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Voices of Spencer Creek Joy of Living: Busy Birdie Day Spring here is a long slow mating dance with quick spurts of flashing feathers and aerial acrobatics. By Edie Self Posted on Apr 22, 2008 Email this article  Printer friendly page A Junco, photo by Dennis Paulson, courtesy of Bird Web of the Seattle Audubon Society Such a busy birdie day it is! Robin spring song greeted the morning--this is the 4th or 5th day of it. By this afternoon, it's a circus out there. Maybe a dozen robins chirk madly, in and out of the holly trees. For a while, juncos seemed to be staying out of the action--observing from the far side of the tree. The robins gobble bright red berries, fly off and soon come back for more. Cedar waxwings are making a rare February visit, maybe thinking there might be nothing left for them to finish in late May. Around the corner, the watering hole looks like part of the junco courting ritual. A quick splash, and off to the rhododendron, with the rival or prospective mate doing the same, over and over. Then here comes the robin for a drink--got to wash down all those berries with something! After 3 or 4 long, graceful swoops and swallows, he's chased off by a thirsty waxwing, who drinks less gracefully, but just as long. Oops, time for another junco bath. I can't help wondering what the hummingbird thinks of all this activity on his turf. He comes to feed often, but I haven't seen him head for his usual perch in the holly yet today. The juncos have been busy in the blooming moss at the edge of the porch roof. Are they grazing at the salad bar or picking bugs? I love to watch their aerial acrobatics, flying loops and zig-zags in perfect formation. Ah, now there's a smart robin! While the others bounce and flutter and stretch for berries in the tree, this one is hopping along in the grass, picking up the ones that have fallen--easy and not nearly as much work. Maybe there'll be a few less holly trees coming up around the place, too. Commendable fellow! Next morning (a rainy one) I was intrigued to observe an enterprising robin standing at the edge of the porch roof nearest the house. Every little bit, he reached out, just at beak level, to drink the raindrops just getting ready to fall from the eaves. With the rain came puddles, and many robins and juncos hopped from one to the next looking for the best place to quaff their thirst. I laughed to see a robin fleeing before a junco, who chased him right around the corner of the house. The robins have darkened the bit of sky visible from my chair dozens of times, hurtling away from the holly trees in their feeding frenzy. One of them hit a nearby window in his hurry, then flew past this one with no apparent harm. I wonder whether the heavy frosts followed by sunny days have already turned those berries alcoholic so early in the year. In any case, this early consumption of a crop usually fed upon in May has given me plenty of entertainment, and it's all there, free for the taking, when I just take the time to observe the wonderful world around me. Copyright 2008 by Edie Self Ms. Self, an occasional contributor to these pages, grew up on the sunny side of Spencer Butte and is a member of the Spencer Butte Writer's Group. Visit the Joy of Living stories and poems by Edie Self at West By Northwest.org: Joy of Living: The Squirreless Remarks Joy of Living: Men Working Joy of Living: Young Melissa and Old Aunt Edie Joy of Living: Fireglow Joy of Living: Hummingbird Rescue Two Spring Shorts from the Spencer Butte Writers Group Northwest Bloomin' Useless Curtains in the Wind One Early Harvest Wash Day for Robins The Sunnyside of Spencer Butte: Two Winter Tales and Birding on the Butte Summer at Grandma's © Copyright 2000-2006 by West By Northwest.org Top of Page Latest Articles West By Northwest Resurrection of West by Northwest Online Journal Restricting Pesticide Use for Salmon Recovery? Memory Project: Rose Wilder Lane, Ghostwriter in the Sky Current Highlights: Marine Reserve Proposals Get Cold Shoulder Current Highlights: Web Map's View of the Ocean Floor Current Highlights: Oregon Liquefied-Natural-Gas Terminal Approved Current Highlights: Poison Forces All to Pay for Timber Firms’ Profits A Summer Solstice Sonnet Spencer Creek Storybook: Remembering Mother's Day at the Longhouse, and Not Up, Up and Away Drilling Instinct Collie Rescue