Surfing the backyard

Spring means more to me than it used to -- a result, I think, of getting older and leading a more settled life.

Staying in one place, I've become more aware of the calendar of phenomena, also aware of how disengaged I've been from the natural world -- not even knowing the names of flora and fauna in our own backyard, or what those birds were that assembled in a tree outside the study window just after dawn Tuesday, kicking up a racket.

Song sparrows, maybe. I turned off the music stream coming over the computer speakers and tried to memorize the call. Then compared it to audio files available on the web. I'm still not sure.

This morning, same tree, different birds.

How odd -- having to turn to the internet to learn about something that's a part of our local surroundings. But where else to ask? It's not as though one can just knock on the neighbors' doors and strike up a conversation about finches and sparrows.

They might not know anyway; we're all recent arrivals, here on this cul-de-sac named for a developer's wife. Even our houses are newcomers.