Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Messenger from the Treetops... Yellow-throated Warbler

Yesterday, Julie and I enjoyed a quick hike around San-Lee Park while the boys played a little tennis across town. Even at our brisk pace, the wooded trails were chilly, so when we completed our loop, we paused to enjoy the sun on a bench by the falls. We'd barely settled on our benches when this strikingly clad character appeared at the water's edge.


Www.allaboutbirds.org
an outstanding educational website maintained by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, has this to say about our little friend... 

"...the Yellow-throated Warbler is a bird of tall trees. It nests and forages high in the canopy of swamp and pine forests."

There were plenty of magnificent pines along the ridge above the dam, so we couldn't help wondering what had enticed this tiny little bird of the tall trees down to the level of we earthbound mortals. 


 Was it the cloud of small flying insects swarming near mid-stream?


Was it the cool, clear waters of the stream, hurrying briskly away from the falls?


Or maybe it was the warm, sunlit meadow, bordered by bushes dense with just-budding branches? 


Perhaps they were all conspirators,
the babbling brook and the sunlit meadow and the bushes and the bugs, 
in luring the lovely forest dweller down. 


Whatever the reason, we were more than delighted to share our space by the stream,


as the excitable fellow flitted from branch to bridge to signpost to stone at the water's edge and back, 

before making the rounds again...


and again!

And when at last

he settled briefly in the shrub's sunny uppermost branches, 

cocking his head and setting his sights again on his faraway home in the canopy,



the mystery of this rare and wonderful encounter

with the lovely little warbler remained;

a simple gift of beauty and wonder, 

and a gentle reminder from above, 

perhaps,

that the forest and the meadow and the stream are both warbler's home and ours...


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