Spring

MonoMonday, Spring. Okay, so this is one of our Eastern Phoebes. Every Spring - at some point in March, often before it is technically Spring - they return from wherever they've been for the Winter. And they refurbish their nest and they start the business of romance and then egg laying and then family raising. So for me, as they are generally the first of the birds who don't winter here to return, they are the signal that SPRING IS HERE!! This photo, taken this morning, is of one of them sitting on the clothes line, which s/he often uses as a spot for looking for, and then swooping down and catching, some hapless insect. Phoebes are "flycatchers." And their song is - very helpfully - their name. The male says "FEE-be... fee BE" over and over again. I am generally sitting where I'm sitting now, in March, when I suddenly hear that song outside on our back porch - and I leap to my feet and grab my camera for my first shot of one of my very favorite birds. And for me, that's when it's Spring!!!!