Song of a Harbinger

"Oh Hallelujah, and thank you, God!" I exclaimed under this morning's blue sky, for the day dawned at 40 degrees F, the foot of snow that lay blanketing the ground last night has diminished by half overnight, and the first Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) of spring are singing --right now as I write this -- in the top of the granddaddy Sugar Maple.

The male Eastern Bluebird
For more bluebird information from Cornell University click here

 Some tunes enliven us, some inspire, some soothe us, but the song of the Bluebird revitalizes my soul.  Pure and clean as glacier melt spilling over round stones, the notes roll over and around like glass marbles, luminous in the morning sunlight, enchanting my thoughts from ice and snow to the ethereal realm of feathered creatures dwelling in the sky.

Yet, when you glimpse the bluebird about its daily business, you spy a shy creature.  In the warmer months, bluebirds perch on fenceposts and other low vantage points from which to scan the ground for soft-bodied insects.  Head bowed as it seeks crawling insects on the ground, the bluebird looks humble and earthy, even the male in his brilliant sky-blue plumage. This time of year, soft-bodied insects are in short supply, so wild fruits like chokecherries, sumac, blueberries and pokeweed berries fill the bluebird's winter diet, though on warm days like today, I have surprisingly seen spiders crawling over the surface of the melting snow.

Friends of the gardener, the Eastern Bluebirds will relish help from gardeners this time of year in the form of nest boxes hung from trees or fenceposts , providing a place for the birds to tuck away in a storm or on a cold night, sometimes many adult birds to a box, cuddling up like my hens do on a frosty night to keep each other warm. 

 If you have a nest box, perhaps today is the day to put it up and provide a warming shelter for an Eastern Bluebird.  For optimum bluebird happiness, face your nest box east to the rising sun, and place it as far away as you can from barns and other structures where English Sparrows thrive, for English Sparrows, aka House Sparrows (Passer domesticus), will kill Eastern Bluebirds for the right to nest in such a box.  But, the Eastern Bluebird is a wild native, a moxie creature, who needs no barn or porch shelter to cosset it through the winter.  A hollow in a tree or the box you provide is all it needs.  A denizen of open spaces, grasslands and pastures, the bluebird is one of the few wild native birds attracted to our hilltop home, making me more grateful for its return to Hawk's Hill.

May your life be graced by the magical song of the Eastern Bluebird today,
Betsy