THE TREE SWALLOWS AND TOWHEES ARE BACK

It is GOOD FRIDAY. And indeed a good Friday it is, as Jewish people have celebrated Passover and Christians are in the midst of celebrating Christ's Paschal Mystery....

SPRING....is a Mystery of Life. The Tree Swallows, Towhees, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Phoebees, Robins galore, Bluebirds galore, nestings Eagles, Red Winged Blackbirds "screaming up a storm" this morning as well as the White Breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees and Tufted Titmouses that have "stayed with us". Today was really the first time this spring I've "heard" (FIRST), then "seen" the Chipping Sparrows. The Song Sparrows are really not singing that much. (I guess they have "nesting work" to do first!)

I have seen Herons which I am "pretty sure" are Great Blues on two of our ponds. What gracious flight they have!

HAPPY EASTER ALL!

YES, I THINK THAT WILLOWS....REALLY WEEP

I think that Weeping Willows really weep. I am serious. Today, a misty, foggy day here at Esopus I walked over to the former Pell Farm. There is a beautiful Willow there. It was the "greenest thing around". And, as I looked closely at the long greening branches reaching almost to the ground, I could see that indeed it is true. "They were really weeping!" At least that is the effect that the small, clinging rain drops gave me to imagine. They were like "God's own glad spring tears" that give life, not, of course, just to Weeping Willows, but to the Crocus, the Forsythia and other "early spring bloomers".

And I thought, For whom and for what are they weeping? The answer would have rather been, For whom and for what are the willows NOT weeping" this spring. Many things: wars, injustices, hatreds, oppressions came to mind. But, being a Hudson River Birder as I am and a former Central Park Birder as I was, I said a silent prayer for ALL my birding friends in Central Park. Some of them don't agree with everything the others do and say. They ALL love the park, the birds, the owls, the hawks, the herons and the now arriving warblers. But some of them don't agree with feeding birds; others do. Some don't think that the owls or even the nesting birds should be "called" or even "searche for" after hours....

Well, I just hope that, as each day goes by, we give Willows and everyone else....."less reasons to weep"
Another PASSOVER approaches. Another EASTER approaches. Let's have More Alleluyas and Shaloms and ....less weeping.

BUDDING WEEPING WILLOWS