we hear you calling
I've been a birdwatcher since I was about 4.Matthew Rothschild/Progressive/commondreams 23.Apr.06
I'd never seen a sandhill crane before coming to Wisconsin. I'd never seen a whistling swan or a snowy oil or a prairie chicken. And each time I've seen them since coming here 23 years ago, it's been a thrill.
But there is something weird going on now.
A Baltimore oriole was seen in Appleton yesterday, two weeks early.
A ruby-throated hummingbird was seen in Milwaukee last week, three weeks early.
A scissor-tailed flycatcher showed up last summer way up north in Manitowish Waters.
These are like the robins in the Arctic Circle, where the Inuit people have no name for robin.
Or the rain on Christmas Eve up there.
Or the polar bears drowning because they can't swim the now vast distances between ice floes.
