Bird energy

I was walking up the road to our monthly Women’s Institute meeting on a calm spring evening, lost in some private reverie, when out of last year’s corn field a thousand Canada geese rose as if on signal! Whoosh! Organized chaos! The noise was magnificent, all honking and flapping and swishing, each goose finding a place in line:  “After you”—“No, after you,” more honking.

The whole flock being airborne high in the sky, they slipped into an air current and spread their wings to glide together toward the shore in choreographed perfection. 

Aren’t the birds this spring something else? Either there are more of them than usual or I am paying more attention. I have an app on my phone (Merlin) that identifies bird songs. This morning I stepped out the door and was greeted by the voices of common raven, American crow, red-winged blackbird, red-breasted nuthatch, American goldfinch, song sparrow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, northern flicker, Canada goose, mourning dove and even a bald eagle! 

I can’t get enough of this bird energy. 

Spring walking rule #1: Always bring binoculars. This morning we were walking to the Cove when one of us spotted what might be a blue heron in the salt marsh. “Shh!” We stopped and peered intently. The heron didn’t move. “I think it’s just a piece of driftwood.” “It must be. Nothing could stand still that long.” “I wish I had brought my binoculars.” We started walking… when the piece of driftwood moved! It was indeed a heron, our first. How exciting! Had it returned to the Island from Mexico? Cuba? What a trooper. 

Down at the Cove the sandbars were white with ring-billed gulls preening and screeching. At water’s edge black ducks breakfasting on weeds and roots were joined by a few crows who wandered around plucking tasty items (flea beetles, clams, shrimp) out of mounds of seaweed. A small flock (flocklet?) of geese paddled in a tidal pool chatting amiably, while further out to sea hundreds of their fellows bobbed on the water in a long wavery line: I guess geese just like lines!

Coming home we spotted our blue heron, still looking like a tree stump, on a branch in a poplar tree. Last week we saw two bald eagles (mother and daughter? one was a juvenile) sitting in the same tree. 

Then more geese flew overhead, so close that I could see their feet, almost hear them breathing! What grace and confidence! And strength. To think that they might have flown from Central America and that our island is a mere stepping stone on their odyssey.

Spring rule #2: Pick up litter. Of course birds love to come to P.E.I. Who doesn’t? It’s so beautiful—and let’s keep it that way. Roadside Clean-up is Saturday, May 9. Let’s all get out on the roadsides and pick up those little Fireball bottles and coffee cups tossed in the ditches: it wasn’t the birds that put ’em there! 

Flap your arms, sing a song, borrow some bird energy, make us proud of our precious island.