Suddenly Birds

Last week we took the long way from Carlyle, on the back roads, just to see if the water was running in the creek. There were horned larks everywhere, and still some lingering snow buntings. The horned larks return ahead of the spring, and I wondered how long they've been back.

Last evening Ruth and I were walking along Souris Avenue, east towards the edge of town. Suddenly I noticed the sounds of birds. Sparrows we have all year round, but these were new sounds - nothing definitely identifiable, at least to my little-trained and winter-rusty ears. Goldfinches? I always thought of those yellow-bright cheery birds as summer creatures only, but since I've been blogging, I've learned that they are not very far away in winter, and usually not bright yellow, either, so perhaps they are around here much more than I realized.

And just now, even from here inside the house, I heard a white-throated sparrow.

Now I'm second-guessing - could it have been a chickadee?

Why am I so reluctant to believe that spring is here?