Birds sing after a storm, why shouldn’t people feel free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them? – Rose Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy family (1890-1995)

Thirty years ago, my older brother, who was ten years old at the time was trying to get a report on birds due the next day…my dad sat down beside him, and said, “bird by bird buddy, just take it bird by bird.” – Anne Lamott, American novelist and nonfiction writer (1954- )

From a bird rehabilitator’s point of view, fledging is comparable to the moments a baby stands up and totters across the floor – Julie Jemima-author/illustrator

While I was beginning to write this column, I was drawn to the birds flitting outside the window. One bird made a slight bump at the window then flew on his merry way. Wilhelmina was curled up behind me on the sofa. She was uninterested in the bumping of birds. I watched various birds come in and out around the birdfeeders. They are a joy to watch. The sun was shining making the day comfortable after the cold weather had come and gone. We have a number of Bird Guide books on our bookcase. Every now and then a bird shows up that is not recognizable but can be found in the bird guide. It also crossed my mind that we had other books about birds and the people that loved and cared for them. Anne Lamott wrote a National Bestseller based on her family’s life “Bird by Bird.” Eudora Welty wrote “The Shoe Bird” in 1964. It was the only book Welty wrote for children. Joe Harkness wrote the book “Bird Therapy” in 2019. Harkness wrote “It’s a positive tale…bird watching transformed my life for the better.” Henry David Thoreau wrote “Walden.” He said, “One afternoon I amused myself by watching a barred owl sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I was standing within a rod of him. I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him for half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open.”

One of the most amazing sights is that of the starlings flying in a murmuration. The birds fly side by side in the thousands swooping in patterns usually during winter while the sun goes down. By flying together as they do helps to keep the predators away such as falcons and keeping the starlings warm. Sam found some interesting information about birds also: Groups of birds like crows are called “Congress, unkindness, and congregation, Owls are a Parliament or Share, Starlings are Murmurations or Cloud, Geese on the ground are Gaggle, in flight Skein, Ducks are Paddling and a Team while flying, Ravens are a Conspiracy, Hawks are Kettle went migrating, Hummingbirds are a Charm, Swallows a Flight or Gulp. Peacocks are a Muster or Pride. Flock is the most common general term for many birds together. Birds of a feather flock together.

Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].