I love it when the birds start coming “home”! Over the past few weeks, our winged Virginia summer residents have been appearing to settle in for the season. The trees are starting to bloom, and spring flowers are showing us little bursts of much-need color after the grey-scale tones of the winter woods.

I was quite tickled to see a bluebird on my birthday last week, and this morning there were three fluttering around by our fence. The robins have been tweetling in the yard for quite awhile now, too. It’s time to make sure all the birdhouses are in order, and break out the hummingbird sugar-water!

I heard the churring of the woodpecker a few days ago, and sure enough, the Pileated has started to drill on our gutter in the mornings again. Thankfully, he only does this rarely, usually he’s out in the trees drilling for bugs. The smaller woodpeckers have been making the rounds, too.

Of course, in between all the bird activity, the Virginia monkeys are leaping from tree to tree. No monkeys in Virginia, you say? HA! Just watch a gang of squirrels flying through the air to land on tiny twigs and chase each other around, and tell me they don’t look like a bunch of little monkeys! They are all carrying around bundles of dried leaves and rebuilding their tree-top nests, and it is fun to watch them scurrying up and down with their building materials.

John and I were out on the deck at around 10:30 PM last night, and the Great Horned Owl and I were hoo-hoo-hooing back and forth for about 20 minutes. He is a year-round resident, but I usually only hear him in the spring, and occasionally in the summer. One of these days I will actually see him instead of just having a conversation through the trees with him! Last year, we heard the beak “clack” that he makes, too. I never knew they did this until I saw this YouTube video:

Spring certainly perks up my mood. Life just seems dismal when it gets cold and everything turns grey in November. John has installed full spectrum lighting in my studio to help keep my serotonin/melatonin levels functioning at their optimum and chase away the winter “blues”. I seriously think they should change that misnomer to “winter greys”, as the color blue, my favorite color, is a happy color, and reminds me of the ocean and summer skies.

We’ve been able to go outside in t-shirts some days, and then the temp dips again, but at least there’s a light at the end of the winter tunnel now…and the end of the tunnel is filled with chirping birds and spring flowers!

Happy Easter, everyone…and until next time, Peaceful Journeys!
EclecticDawn