little friends

Mill Creek Metropark was just 100 footsteps from our home in Boardman. It's Ohio's oldest + biggest city park and it's a real treasure. I have fond memories of walking or cycling around Lake Newport w/ family, friends and my dog Roger. We also canoed on the lake and spent many hours in the park exploring trails to see what we could find. It was the best education for the kids & it was FREE!

But what I miss most about the park in particular, and Ohio in general, are my little winged friends that would greet me with their beautiful songs and calls and talk to me in a language that I understood. The cardinal's "birdy, birdy, birdy", the titmouse's "peter, peter, peter", the black-capped chickadee's "chick-a-dee-dee-dee", and the barred owl's "who cooks for you, who cooks for you-ahhhhhhh"are all phrases that made me feel at home. The kids loved to hear them too, and it made them feel like they had little friends in the forest.

Now, I'm not only learning Dutch but also a whole new language of European bird songs and calls, and how to identify the birds too. Many of the species are different. There are no cardinals, no ruby-throated hummingbirds, no vultures, no wood ducks, no hooded mergansers - unless one of these birds happens to wander way off course, which happens from time to time. But to compensate, there are tons of TITS! Six types of tits visit my backyard bird feeder: great tits, crested tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, blue tits, and marsh tits. They're brilliant little creatures and much more colorful than tits in North America, and they're a joy to watch as they struggle to pull peanuts out of shells.

Tervuren Park is just 800 footsteps from our home, and it's where I go when I need some time with my little winged friends. There are no wood ducks, but today I saw another tree-nesting duck that's not native to Europe, and it about knocked my socks off! When the male flew by with its orange head and white teardrop eye, I knew exactly what it was - a Mandarin Duck! After the pair landed about 150 m away, I found them perched in trees, exactly where you'd expect tree-nesting ducks to hang out. As I was watching the Mandarin pair preen, who happened to swim into binocular view, but a pair of Great Crested Grebes! These are magnificent duck-like birds with long, skinny necks and spectacular head ornaments. When the male gets excited, it's something to behold. His head plumes raise up like a pair of black horns and mane surrounding his neck! The pair then entered into a courtship display, where the male and female imitate each others gestures in what would be considered a mating dance. It didn't result in a mating, but just watching them dance was enough excitement for this old birder.

After getting to know some of the birds here, I'm beginning to feel much more at home. Now when I go for a walk, I'm never alone. There's always some little friend talking to me, if only I make time to listen.