Letter to a Kentucky Warbler

0:00This is Bird Note. I'm J. Drew Lanham, an ornithologist, naturalist, and writer, and this is a note I've written to a bird I love. Dear Kentucky Warbler, are you real? It's hard to believe the way that citrine melds into your mossy, olive-drab back and those black sideburns drip down your cheeks. Remembering a close encounter with you one mid-May day, for about half an hour, and I thought I'd crossed over some ethereal boundary into another world. You singing that ringing redep, redep, redep, redep, telling me you're hidden deep in the gap-tangle of some new greening spring woods. The resounding solo is a sirens draw into warblerific joy. Besides searching in vain for your other uber skulky friends like the Connecticut and Morning Warbler's, you've revealed yourself to me from time to time as a bird blessing.

1:06I'm hoping that you find more tangles to hang out in and maybe make more little ones like yourself. I know it's getting harder to find the special tangly spots and big woods you need to be who you are, but I promise to keep working hard to save your tiny world. Sure, Kentucky might be your name, but I claim you in my own state of heart and mind, my sideburn bird. Adoringly drew. Birdnote is supported by Wild Delight Bird Food. Wild Delight provides thoughtfully crafted blends that support wild birds and backyard birders alike. Anyone who feeds birds knows the challenge. Squirrels are clever, persistent, and always nearby. Wild Delight, sizzle in heat and squirrel away zero waste blends offer a smart and natural solution.

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