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Spring?
By Lauretta Young

The pond in the Bronson Creek wetlands is no longer frozen over, and yet the swallows have not returned. The Daphne is just starting to bloom, however the over-wintering Golden Crowned Sparrows, with their plaintive mournful call, continue to visit our yard. The soil temperature is struggling to reach 55, which will signal it is safe to plant my peas. The Mallards are engaged in their “head bobbing courting dance.” This is transition time—winter is drawing to a close and spring has almost arrived.

I recently hosted a woman from St. Louis who was interested in seeing some new birds. Back home, the most common yard birds are the Cardinal and the Blue Jay. Her goal was to see birds she had never seen before—which included several of our most common yard birds—Spotted Towhees, Golden Crowned Sparrows and Scrub Jays. So I invited her to my house where we enjoyed cups of tea while we watched these visitors to our bird feeders. It was wonderful to experience her delight as she saw her first ever flock of Bushtits arrive to feast on suet.  Soon the Bushtits will know it is time to pair up and build their characteristic sock-like nests woven out of moss and dried grasses. Then we will see them arrive at our bird feeders in pairs instead of flocks.

Tundra Swans, Ridgefield, February 1, 2014

Tree and Violet Green Swallows commonly spend their winter in Mexico. My bird diary indicates that they typically arrive in Cedar Mill, on their return migration back to our neighborhood, approximately during the first two weeks of March. Their predictable arrival is one of those indicators for me that spring is on its way.  Soon Green Herons and warblers of various types, who have spent the winter with us, will depart for their breeding grounds in the north. For me, this will indicate that spring has arrived. Rufous Hummingbirds who wintered in warmer regions will soon arrive to join those that spent the winter with us.  Soon they will be feeding on the native currant blossoms. The Tundra Swans, who spent the winter in our region, will soon leave to fly to the coast of western Alaska, northern Alaska and Canada, their summer breeding grounds.

We are accustomed to our seasons unfolding in the span of months. The pattern is very familiar to us. As I ponder this time of transition from one season to another, and consider the cosmic and biological forces—those we understand and those we have not yet discovered—which govern the timing and sequence of it all, I wonder if there are “seasonal” changes in store for human beings that occur on such a long time-line that we are not fully aware of them? I was reading recently about the “mega droughts” which have occurred over the span of the prior thousands of years.

Do we have similar periodic renewal and regenerative processes, which take place in our lives, associated with the arrival of new possibilities? Do we “bloom?” Do we change in any way that we can discern? I wonder about the artificial lights and the blending together of the seasons that we have created in the last hundred or so years… I think most of us have “nature deficit disorder.”  We need to go outside and connect more cleanly with our “natures”—with the light, the seasons, with the things we can learn from other beings.

Those are my thoughts as I ponder the ways in which we can learn from the natural world.

Lauretta Young MD is the medical director of the Medical Student Integrative Student Resiliency course at Oregon Health and Sciences School of Medicine, and takes out clients for bird tours – see her website at portlandbirdwatching.com. See more of her husband’s photos at flickr.com/photos/youngbirders.

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