Waking up with Music

The birds have recently upped the intensity of their morning songs and even though we have been getting a ton of snow, those sweet morning tweets make it feel like spring must be right around the corner, it must be--right?

Two of the songs I have been hearing quite a bit lately are those of the Red-winged Blackbird and those of the Western Meadowlark. Both have unique calls that are fairly easy to identify. The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) with their easily recognizable, breeeeeeeee-you or konk-la-reeeee and the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) with their melodic flute-like notes.

You can read more about them and listen to their calls at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's web-site All About Birds:

Red-winged Blackbird: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/sounds

Western Meadowlark: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark/sounds