Advance Guards

This week past I decided to take a small drive thru Forsythe...meander thru Jen's trail a bit and Leeds trail to the point. It was sunny day and I expected a lot for being March. Yet alas, it was pretty quiet. 

I think that as 'humans'....(a fairly blind species in many ways)...we have a tendency to think that everything runs on our time, our clock...our calendar and our view of the world. Well, not so. Just because it was a glorious 'still winter' day in Jersey, with the sun out  and my expectations high....Spring Birds were not on my calendar page.

You see migration is up to the birds, not me....in deciding when they are going to bless our eyes with flight. Now I know that climate change has come into place, and unless you watch the FOX ENQUIRER, most of us realize that slowly our understanding of what and when birds migrate, the range maps etc...are perhaps up for grabs. But if I was to look at Sibley's "The Birds of Cape May' dated 1997, I would find  that we are just on the cusp of a few of our favorites due to arrive. 

Although the Woodcock is around us daily....only recently have we been really seeing them in numbers as evident by the chatter on Ebird-alert. The Pine Warblers should be within our midst real soon. Eastern Phoebe, Osprey, Blue Winged Teal, Glossy Ibis....and a whole slew to follow in April.

But just as important as those which arrive....are those who leave. I always know Winter is over when the Juncos depart. Now, as I look at my feeder outside my office window, I still see Juncos, so perhaps the Ground Hog was right. My eyes see 'sun', but the birds see winter. The loons are still out at Barnegat, the Grebes....the (2) Tundra Swan at Forsythe,...as are the Mergansers with their 'hair', the Buffleheads,and White-throated Sparrows. 

This is a  special time....We smell spring....we feel it, sense it. But the guards have not changed yet and while a new set of guards will come in to replace the ones just left, for now, we have to take these last few days of March and appreciate that which will not be here in just a few weeks. This reminds me of a song by Seals and Croft---'Advance Guards'---Do you remember the lyrics?

I used to look out from my window
And see the tall grass in the wind
Standing there just like advance guards
Waiting for the battle to begin

My mother used to be much younger
She'd sing me soft, sweet lullabies
I saw my fortress in the mountains
Each time I looked into her eyes

But now she's gone
Take me there, take me there, I don't care where we go
Take me I just want to know what I used to know
Take me there, take me there, I don't care where we go
Take me there, take me I just want to go

My father's hair has turned to gray now
I never stopped to ask him why
And all the things that he once treasured
I see them slowly drifting by

Okay.....a slice of sentimentalness ....but while the guards change in our family, so do they in birds. ......