St, Francis Stained Glass Window -- Taize, France
Birds are singing, woods are ringing, with thy praises, blessed King:
Lake and mountain, field and fountain, to they throne their tributes bring.
Yesterday was International Dawn Chorus Day which has been acknowledged since the 1980's and I'm glad it exists, particularly during this pandemic.I offered some thoughts on this celebration in my Lion Lamb blog and I've decided that Groundling is a good place as well.
Many congregations have been forced to find alternatives to gathering for Sunday worship, over the course of the past 14 months. When the first shut-down occurred in March of 2020 we assumed that closing our doors would be temporary. Some haven't held a single worship service in their sanctuary since. Even when some congregations, such as ours in Trenton, did return to in-person worship one of the significant differences was the absence of the choir. This is the reality in most churches because there just isn't the technological capability to make it happen virtually and protocols prohibit the proximity necessary for choral singing, not to mention that congregational singing has been banned.
.In recent days we've been enjoying this "dawn chorus" as an alternative, including during Sunday morning rambles. Springtime at dawn including an astonishing variety of birdsong, and frog-song as well, if you live in the right spot. This chorus borders on a cacophony at times, but so do some human choirs. .I was in the woods and by the water north of Belleville just after 7:30 yesterday and the birds were everywhere. We haven't reached the height of the warbler migration yet, but there were still lots of vocal avian choristers, with some woodpeckers adding percussion.
I was peering through the gloom of a rainy morning today when I realized that there was a rose-breasted grosbeak at one of the feeders. It brightened our day despite the weather, and I'll be listening for the song of a pair now.
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (not my photo)
For the longest time the scientific thinking has been that birds vocalize to announce territory and to attract mates. There is more discussion now that birds may sing for the pleasure and praise of it, and that works for me. The psalmist would agreed: "By the streamse the birds of the air have their habitation ,they sing among the branches.Psalm 104:12
Thank God for these choirs in a time when we need the songs of hope.
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