Sweet Birds

What if you were only allowed one tiny square of chocolate a year. Would you savor it? Nibble off tiny little pieces and let them just melt on your tongue? Make it last as long as you could?

Sweet birds are those that you only get to see once a year or so. Maybe even less.

On Thursday, during my lunch break I walked down to the creek, surprised that there were very few migrants around. Then, as I was watching some catbirds across the creek, I noticed a beautiful Canada Warbler (a Yellow WatchList bird), flitting in the trees.

Canada Warbler is a sweet bird for me. I only usually see it a couple times each year, during migraion, as it heads to its northern breeding grounds, or its southern wintering haunts. I love the brilliant yellow underside, slate gray back, and sharp black necklace and face markings. Stunning. And a sweet bird.

According to eBird, I saw my first one on September 21, 1995, after moving to Texas. I've only seen a couple since moving to Pennsylvania in 2004. So seeing it at work was very sweet. That's one of the great things about migration--you never know what sweet birds or old friends are going to show up on any given day. That's why you have to go birding every day. Who wants to miss out on their only chance during the year to bump into a sweet bird!?!