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Friday, December 7, 2018

The Dark of December

Good morning! Every morning we are greeted with song from a Carolina wren whose home must be very near our bedroom window. As the light has retreated in these winter days, his wake-up call gets later and later--now it is 7:15. You could almost set a watch by him. After solstice, his song will come earlier and earlier, assuring that we sleepyheads will be awake at daybreak whenever it comes.


You can hear a lot of birds in the video above, most notably the woodpecker--sounds like the red-bellied to me. The video is not mine, but from Youtube--I am never camera-ready when our bird sings.

This morning he sang only one time, and he sounded cold, not his usual happy, chipper self. I hope he's all right. We have enjoyed his company for this past year.

One of my favorite poems is about a bird singing in December, and our wren reminds me of it.


I Heard a Bird Sing
by
Oliver Herford (1863–1935)
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

5 comments:

  1. Such a lovely alarm clock. It's wonderful to have nature call first thing in the morning. thank you for sharing.

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  2. Sounds a bit sweeter than our Wrens who are also mighty small but plenty loud!

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  3. Thank you for some pleasant moments listening to the Carolina wren.

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  4. This is one of my favorites too.

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  5. Thanks for this! I am terrible at identifying birds by their song, but now I'll know this one :)

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