Tales from the Bird Sanctuary: Spring Inspiration

I love April. It’s National Poetry Month, which always puts me in a state of looking for and appreciating the beauty in the world around me, so I can express it in my poetry. And what better time to focus on the beauty in the world, than when things are just starting to green up, and the migrating birds are flocking in to the bird sanctuary.

“But, what does a bird sanctuary have to do with with National Poetry Month?” you might ask. After all, this is a “Tales from the Bird Sanctuary” post, where talk of poetry may not seem to fit. The truth is, since I started this blog series last year, I’ve been wondering what it was doing on a blog about books and writing. But as I spent most of April preparing and launching Poetry Treasures 3: Passions and compiling my own poetry collection, Small Wonders, and watched all the migrating birds coming in for the summer and the green of my tulips popping upm through the soil, it occured to me that Spring is the season of new beginnings, in nature and in my writing endeavors.

You Know It’s Spring…

You know that it’s Spring when new birds start appearing in pairs

You know it’s Spring whe the first Hummingbird buzzes by your head

You know it’s Spring when green pokes through brown whereever you look

You know it’s Spring when the sun warms the days, but the nights still carry a chill

You know it’s Spring when the buzz of insects fills the air once more

Bird Tales

This year, the first Hummingbird was spotted on April 4th, which was a bit early in the season, but I welcomed him, putting up the first nectar feeder of the year to accomodate my early guest.

Mid-April I had more birds than I could count. New birds migrating in filled my trees raising a cacphony of birdsong and the bird sanctuary was a very busy place.

How many birds do you see? When Spring hits and the migrating birds come in, there are birds everywhere you look. The noise level can be quite surprising when you get so many birds all chattering at once. They are on the ground, too, but they all scatter when I come out and I haven’t been able to get that on film, as yet.

The first Robin is a sure sign of Spring. This may be one of last year’s youngsters, returning. I like to think it is the one that came right up to my porch and asked me for food when daddy would bring them out each morning, two years ago, but it’s more likely to be one of its youngsters. Perhaps this one will have a brood of its own this year.

Nuthatch sampling the suet. Nuthatches hang at the sanctuary all year long. I have had multiple families over the years. Last year I had pygmy nuthatches make an appearance, and I’m hoping I will see them again this year. They are smaller, with rufus colored breasts. They are darling.

And the birds weren’t the only spring visitors I had this year. The water attracts more than just birds, and so do my little green plants poking up out of the soil. They will be a challenge in my garden all summer. I planted a new raspberry bush which I will have to keep a close eye on. For now though, they’re just after the water, so I’ll have to refill the bird baths when they go.

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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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