Spring Song

Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring told of the deleterious effects of pesticides on the environment and how, at some point, our world could be absent of birdsong, thus a silent spring.  On a recent evening walk in our neighborhood, there was a chorus of warbles, chirps, cheeps and chatter as the birds communicated gaily all around me. At one intersection, four robins greeted me. In our verdant little community, gratefully, there was no silent spring that evening.  Rachel Carson is credited by many as having started the environmental movement, transforming us from a state of complacency to a place of heightened awareness and alert as to just what we were doing to the planet and to ourselves.  Thankfully, people heeded her call.  While there is still much to do (and I believe that we're slowly poisoning ourselves, which will likely be the subject of another post someday), there has been much progress.  And on that delightful spring evening recently, there was nothing as wonderful as hearing spring song everywhere.