Subject: IS: bird song images WAS: penny whistles
Date: Mar 2 13:48:26 1999
From: Deborah Wisti-Peterson - nyneve at u.washington.edu



John <JFMM490 at wadnr.gov> mentioned;

" ... Most bird songs evoke a memory of place for me. Mourning doves =
are a hot summer afternoon in the hammock in the backyard in Minnesota or =
Iowa. Varied thrushes are an evening hike up a steep trail along the =
Columbia Gorge. Both are great memories, but with all this rain, I could =
really use some quality hammock time."

for me, mourning doves are a long climb up a rocky cliff face in
central washington while the sun is setting, while varied thrushes
are an afternoon hiking around in the mount rainier wilderness,
coupled with the sound of a wild stream and the feel of cool, moist
air on my skin.

bird songs have always evoked strong images for me. for example,
a robin, which i gave the name "the morningbird" when i was
perhaps four years old, recalls a cool clear morning, moments
before the sun rises and warms the moist earth. the white-
crowned sparrow, another bird that i christened as "the lazy
days bird" when i was perhaps four years old, brings back
those hot dry eastern washington days when i would lay on my
back in open fields, eyes closed and my bones melting into
the sweetly-scented soil, while the birds and insects sang their
love songs all around me.

and then there were those birds whose songs touched me so deeply
that i could never think of an earthly name that was appropriate
for them, but i always knew these birds by the emotions they
evoked in me whenever they sang. birds such as the western
meadowlark, the canyon wren and the common loon, whose songs i now
have installed as clock chimes on my computer so i can be reminded
of them every few minutes. birds that i have to hear every year,
and so i take trips to the open fields every year so i can hear
the explosion of these birds' songs that greet the sun when it
first peeks over the horizon.

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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