With a subtle yet profound charm, some local phoebes have marked another burgeoning spring as their innate understanding of another years' time brought them back to a notable place among some midtown environs. It is a spot they have been known to prefer in several previous years, according to some few notes by ornithological enthusiasts.
The calendar of the birds' time, reliant on some drastically constricted and perpetually questioning human view, was another blatant first that did herald the freshening season for another year. These particularly expressive birds of subtle and social song showed up - once again, thankfully - for another stint to mate, nest under the bridge and raise a treasured brood of young for another season of time.
Phoebe land along Wood Creek. |
At one particular well-known locale in a midtown, the phoebes called with zest while moving about, hawking after scattered insects from suitable tree-limbs on the final days of March along Wood Creek in a city park surrounded by urban sprawl. They were there again a few brief days later, before the spring blizzard with hearty winds and minimal snow - more hype than reality - spread across the local city environs. This species was not obvious during a walkabout during the storm, apparently having found a haven in some woods elsewhere, obviously knowing a more suitable place to survive during drastic weather conditions.
After this blatantly subtle, yet well-pronounced weekend of dramatic weather, with its designated blizzard warning, had gone eastward to elsewhere, outdoor conditions subsided to something more pleasant outside. The small number of Eastern Phoebes once again were present at their creek place most certainly suitable for them to thrive, as they have for unknown bird generations. For some confined considerations by an observer, it is a place they suitably appreciated, derived from past observations by some entity that could write about it.
The spring antics of these birds is something to known and appreciate on these days of a warming spring. In the park, what they are doing is expressive and indicative of early April in the lands somewhat associated with the Missouri River valley, but further to the west across the bluffs of houses. At the creek's pond, a particular phoebe was hawking somethings off of the surface of the water. Nearby, four Canada Goose and a bit of a bunch of Mallards ignored the song bird activities, as they had their own focus for establishing a place to survive in the forthcoming months.
Along the creek further to the east, a pair of the obviously vocal phoebes - expressed their characteristic and readily notable call - flying together about the botany springs hollow, along Wood Creek, indicating their natural, exquisite and especial indication of spring-time with warming rays of sun, and portending of ample bugs on which to thrive. The pair interacted so obviously together with attention for each other, vocalizations of expression, going about together and, pursuing prey in the arboreal realm. They seemed to be obviously, and suitably for the norms of their feathered clan, establishing a specific home-range, a defended territory for pending weeks beyond the first blossom of the breeding season.
Graffiti at the midtown home of the phoebe. |
One so finely snagged a bug that was about in due to warming temps! These birds expressed, in one person's observant personal opinion, the joy of spring blooming in the park. Hear the call of the phoebe? Fly on again and again, mighty bug-catcher!
Vocalizations from a limb in the treetops seemed to mean so much to them, as their sweet song was heard during a person's brief foray in the park landscape. Brief minutes of appreciation were a too short view of the ongoing daily activities of these active, bug-catching birds.
Eastern Phoebes will be about for the coming breeding season at the park. They may certainly be appreciated to some degree or another by an astute watcher, but remain mostly unknown by ignorant bypassers to the park to walk a dog, jog, or pedal upon their bicycle. These birds don't care, but it is important to know the places they prefer and realize that there are not just empty woods about, but the places are a haven for many neighbors of the natural realm.
Spring is sprouting and spreading an appreciation about the seasonal arrival of a myriad of wildbirds to local haunts of definite importance for a discoverer taking the time to look.
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