Black-Winged Redbirds: A Dedication

Scarlet Tanager (http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/SCATAN)

A magnificent morning -- frost glistening in the sunshine and birds calling energetically.  The area where I walked is waking up to spring: a wave of yellow-rumped and palm warblers came though last night, great blue herons and great egrets stalk the shallow waters of the lake, and geese honk frantically.  To my amazement, I caught a glimpse of crimson in the woods and realized that a pair of scarlet tangers was flitting through the trees.

It's been nearly 25 years to the day since my husband and I participated in a Museum of Natural History week-end field trip to Point Pelee, a major stopover for migrating birds.  The point, in southern Ontario, juts into Lake Erie and provides a welcome resting spot for weary travelers who have made their way up from South Amercia and crossed the wide expanse of the lake during the night.  The birds drop to Pelee's beaches in droves on early mornings in May, utterly spent from their long journey.

Our first morning there was cold and rainy and generally miserable for humans and birds alike.   However, a wave of scarlet tanagers had come through the night before, and their vibrant reds and glossy blacks seemed to light up the dark woods.

I will never forget one of the young women who took part in that trip.  She was killed in a terrible accident several months later, but that morning she stood there in the rain, with her own thick red hair cascading down the back of her poncho, and exclaimed, "The woods are full of black-winged redbirds!"

Walked: 3.5 miles