Singing for Spring

Safety Officers at the head of our street

Feeling cabin-bound but with our Lane blocked by fallen trees and wires Kay and I walked to Halibut Point during the most recent northeaster. There were also pragmatic reasons to make the trek now.


The Babson Farm Quarry in falling snow

We expected the sticky snow and blustery wind would put a short-lived glaze on the quarry walls. The dreary light might render details with subtlety that sunshine would later discriminate into brights and shadows. 


Shrubbery beside the quarry

Every surface was receiving the confectioner's touch as a compensation of the vexatious weather. 


Mallards rising

Overall, however, the storm was disrupting the seasonal progress toward spring. Quarry ice had gone. Ducks were paired affectionately. It's mid-March when shamrock green should tune the landscape. 


Red-winged Blackbird on frosted cattails

The next morning, the Lane still blocked, we walked again toward Halibut Point. The roar of wind and surf had moderated. We could hear Red-winged Blackbirds in the marsh across Granite Street sweetly summoning good order back into the season. 


Great Cormorant on a quarry ledge

At the quarry the unusual sight of a Great Cormorant awaited us, perhaps a consequence of the storm. That species appears on the winter shoreline but rarely ventures to fresh water, unlike orange-cheeked Double-crested Cormorants common at other times of the year. 


Female Red-breasted Merganser on the quarry

Then we had another first-time sighting on quarry waters, a Red-breasted Merganser which also frequents the ocean perimeter of Halibut Point but not the interior. 


She enjoyed a fresh water bath and perhaps a few minnows before departing.

Undaunted by the quirks and hardships of meteorology songbirds were keeping pace with their relational advertisements in the treetops. Cardinals, titmice, chickadees, sparrows contributed familiar nuptial calls. Even crows and bluejays seemed to warm the edges of their croaks and screeches. On the walk home a series of old tunes came unbidden to my mind. How can I keep from singing?