NCC: An original poem: The Bluebirds Have Returned

May 9, 2020 | by Leta Pezderic

Springtime is making its appearance across the country. Buds are starting to appear on bare branches, blades of grass turn green again and signs of critters abound. One feathered friend is particularly endearing, and a delight to welcome back: the mountain bluebird. My father wrote this poem to capture the marvelous characteristics of these little bluebirds as they migrate back to Canada for breeding. Hope you enjoy this video with some bluebird photographs I captured! Learn more about mountain bluebirds here.    

By Norm Elford ©

A fleeting flash of brilliant blue

over prairie dull and drab

Skimming down the fence line true

then perched on sandstone slab

 

This truly is my favorite sign

that spring has finally come

The Mountain Blue Birds have returned

their long migration done

 

They joust tree swallows for the right

to claim a box for nesting

Then lay a clutch of pale blue eggs

Once hatched there’ll be no resting

 

Five or more little mouths to feed

Parents only seem to pass

Now hovering with beating wings

above blue grama grass

 

Then plummeting from sky to earth

to catch a moth or grub

Then head for home to feed the clan

a sumptuous wiggling bug

 

Soon naked bodies fill out from fuzz

to fluff of blue and grey

So soon they’ll fledge and leave the box

to hurry on their way

 

But Joe the master bander

to track their journey south

First bands one scrawny leg of each

before they leave their house

 

Then one day their heads poke out

and you know they’ll take the chance

And soon you’ll see the whole darn bunch

snuggled tight along a branch

 

Or hopping through the fescue

in a ragged sort of line

To search out bugs all by themselves

and you know that they’ll be just fine

 

Too soon they’re gone and with them

the summer and, I fear

I won’t feel quite the same until

They come again next year