They're Back! Humming Around

I am so happy to see our hummingbirds back again this year.

The first one arrived, buzzed around where the feeders were last year, and left, a little indignantly I thought. So I hustled to get the feeders cleaned up and filled. Now there are three hummingbirds here, and they keep us highly entertained.

There are plenty of other birds around: nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, robins, blue jays, goldfinches, pine siskins, mourning doves, bluebirds, sparrows or various kinds, Carolina wrens, crows, brown thrashers, wood thrushes, towhees, yellow-shafted flicker, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers and pileated woodpeckers--and the night-calling whipoorwill and two big barn owls back in the woods. There are wild turkeys galore, too, wily enough to escape the hunters who are also in the woods at this time of year.

Besides the hummingbirds, though, we've seen no other migratory birds at our feeders yet. The cold temperatures may be keeping them away, as it is still dipping into the 30's (F) at night. Still, I'm happy to watch the crowds we do have, even if it means ducking from time to time to keep out of the hummingbirds' way.

Spring is bringing its multi-hued green cloak to the place at last. I cannot get enough of looking at it, seeing each day the slight variations as one tree after another unfolds its leaves. The apples are finally blooming, weeks later than usual, and the redbuds were not as full as they usually are, but still it is all beauty unbounded. Such a gift, Spring is.

She's also quite the taskmaster, bringing plenty of work for idle hands. For this moment, though, we're in good shape as far as outside work.

And evenings always bring the pleasure of skywatching and listening to the whippoorwills before we go inside for the night.

Last night I brought a little of the garden in with me; small bouquets just make my heart happy.

And speaking of skywatching, a story about hummingbirds:

How The Stars Came to Be

(A legend from the Chumash people of the California coastal region)

In the days before humans came to earth,the sky was always filled with light, and the animals and birds lived happily together. So why did they start to fight and argue? No one really knows, but the one known as The Great Spirit saw this and tried to make peace again among his creatures. The animals, however, were so noisy they paid no attention, and just kept fighting.

So, the Great Spirit threw a blanket across the sky. Now it was dark all the time. Can you imagine how the animals felt? They stopped fighting, that's for sure--whatever it was that has caused the disagreement seemed a small thing in this great darkness. 

The animals called a council.

"We must find a way to end this darkness, to pull down the blanket that covers the sky," they said. But who could do such a mighty thing?"I will do it," said Bear. "I am the strongest, and my paws can rip that blanket to shreds."  He climbed to the top of the highest mountain and tried and tried, but the blanket was too far away, and at last he gave up, leaving only a streak across the sky where his claws has slashed the blanket.

"Who can go next?" the animals asked. "Who is bigger and stronger than Bear?" 

"I can do it," said a little voice.

"You, Hummingbird? You are so tiny, that's funny!" And they all laughed at the little hummingbird.

One after another the animals tried to pull down the blanket, and one after another failed. When Vulture tried, he came screaming back to earth, his head on fire--for he had poked a hole through the blanket, yes, but the sun had scorched every feather and set his head on fire.

"I will go! Let me!" shouted Hummingbird, over and over. And over and over the animals ignored the tiny bird--well, even though he shouted, his voice was still tiny! So, Hummingbird snuck away all on his own, and flew fast and high until he reached the blanket. With his long thin beak he poked hole after hole in the blanket, darting away quickly each time so he would not be burned like Vulture. When he was finished, Hummingbird fell back to earth, exhausted.

When the animals looked up and saw what Hummingbird had done, they were amazed--and realized that while all they had done was argue about what to do, Hummingbird just went and did it.

The Great Spirit saw what the little bird had done, too. He smiled.

"So, because this little one has done what all of you could not, I will let light return to the world. But every night, I will throw the blanket over the sky again as a reminder to you not to fight. I will use this blanket, so that you will have some light, even through the darkness.

And so began night and day. Bear’s slash is the Milky Way, the hole made by Vulture is the moon, Hummingbird's holes became the stars.

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

World Storytelling Day: A Magpie Tale

Happy World Storytelling Day, my friends! And Happy Spring--she arrived this morning according to the meteorolgists. To me the first day of spring is always the 21st, the way we were taught when I was a child. Equinoxes and solstices all arrived on the 21st of their respective months. But these days it appears to be a moveable occurrence, due I suppose to more accurate equipment and better knowledge of the workings of the universe.

Spring has had an on-again-off-again start in my area this year. In mid-February we were sitting outside without jackets and some days sweating in the sun. Now, when we should begin to feel some warmth in the air, it is colder than February! My poor daffodils are drooping over as if giving up on the weather, and the blossoms on some bushes and trees were frozen in last week's temperatures that dropped into the teens. I've been picking the daffodils and bringing them in to enjoy since they don't look like much now outside.

But, it is officially Spring, and surely we will soon be planting gardens, right? Often by this date our Spring garden is already on the ground but between the rains and the cold we have nothing planted except a lettuce and onion bed. Patience is the name of the game this year, I think.

Let us celebrate anyway, both the arrival of Spring and World Storytelling Day. Here is a story I was reminded of by the very active birds around our house. They are singing early in the morning even though it is still very chilly and wet and doesn't really feel like spring, or bird-courting weather, to me. The bird in this story is probably the Eurasian Magpie, which has many superstitions attached to it, such as the "one for sorrow" rhyme, which attached various events to how many magies one sees at one time. Here is one version of that poem:

One for sorrow,

Two for mirth

Three for a funeral,

Four for birth

Five for heaven

Six for hell

Seven for the devil, his own self

There is also a belief that Magpies predict Spring weather, as in "one magie alone be seen, foul weather will it bring."

And now at last, the story!

The Magpie's Nest

From English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916)

Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!

ALL the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests. For the magpie is the cleverest bird of all at building nests. So she put all the birds round her and began to show them how to do it. First of all she took some mud and made a sort of round cake with it.

'Oh, that's how it's done,' said the thrush; and away it flew, and so that's how thrushes build their nests.

Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them round in the mud.
'Now I know all about it,' says the blackbird, and off he flew; and that's how the blackbirds make their nests to this very day.

Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs.

'Oh, that's quite obvious,' said the wise owl, and away it flew; and owls have never made better nests since.

After this the magpie took some twigs and twined them round the outside.

'The very thing!' said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day.

Well, then Madge Magpie took some feathers and stuff and lined the nest very comfortably with it.

'That suits me,' cried the starling, and off it flew; and very comfortable nests have starlings.

So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but none of them waiting to the end. Meanwhile Madge Magpie went on working and working without looking up till the only bird that remained was the turtle-dove, and that hadn't paid any attention all along, but only kept on saying its silly cry: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.'

At last the magpie heard this just as she was putting a twig across. So she said: 'One's enough.'

But the turtle-dove kept on saying: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.'

Then the magpie got angry and said: 'One's enough, I tell you.'

Still the turtle dove cried: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.'

At last, and at last, the magpie looked up and saw nobody near her but the silly turtle-dove, and then she got rarely angry and flew away and refused to tell the birds how to build nests again. And that is why different birds build their nests differently.

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 Want more? There are three more tales of Spring at these sites.

Encyclopedia Mythica shares a Scandinavian story.

The Spring Lover and the Autumn Lover come to us from Japan.

Little Snow Girl, "rolled from the snows of Spring." is a Russian tale.

And then take a little Spring trip, to the amazingly beautiful gardens of Cornwall, England. We did not see these on our visit to Cornwall last fall,but I think we need to make another trip. Be sure to check out the video of the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Mystical, beautiful.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.