Repeat Please! 🔁

May is never disappointing, but this year it was exceptional. Spring came on gradually with cool to moderate temperatures until this week's warm spell. Some years we go from winter to summer with hardly any spring weather, but this month is worth repeating if possible. I would trade June for another month of May.

My friend sent me a link to a video of Mary reading her poem "I Happened to Be Standing" from her book A Thousand Mornings: Poems. She writes,

...Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don’t know why. And yet, why not.
I wouldn’t persuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don’t. That’s your business.
But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be
if it isn’t a prayer?...

Recent studies have demonstrated the positive effects of listening to bird songs on mental health with reduced feelings of depression and paranoia found in healthy and depressed people. Now that the trees are leafy, I often rely on bird songs to locate them. I listened to so much beautiful music and would put the bird songs on repeat if possible. Here are some of the singers I saw this month as they lifted their prayers to the sky. 

Song Sparrow

House Wren

Yellow Warbler

Bobolink

Savannah Sparrow

Eastern Meadowlark

Red-winged Blackbird

A very enthusiastic American Redstart

I must mention one other bird that was a delight to see even though it did not sing a song for me at the time. The Veery has a most haunting and beautiful song. I heard it first on Manitoulin Island and it took some time for me to figure out who the singer was. It is hard to find a Veery as they are reclusive and plain in appearance. I saw one early in May, hopping on the forest floor as it blended in with the fallen leaves from autumn.

Here is a short clip of a recording of a Veery's song.