This Little Place Here: They're Here!

I've been watching the first scouts of the migratory birds return in the last few weeks. A couple of bluebirds, a pair of sandhill cranes, a lone killdeer. And I've been thinking "Okay, soon I'll see a robin."

Earlier this week I saw more bluebirds. Several red-winged blackbirds. Four more killdeer. The crane pair landed in my marsh a few days ago and have been traveling the neighborhood since, stopping in again at this little place here this morning.

And I think, "Where are the robins?"

I also wonder what day I will see my pair of house finches, the ones that have been nesting on the curve of downspout just outside my dining room window for the last several years. They always sit on the deck railing or the eaves and sing while I eat breakfast on spring and summer mornings. They too should be arriving back soon.

Then, this morning, as I sit at the computer and check email on a blustery, cloudy day that follows a rainy night, I happen to look up, out the sliding door and into the backyard.