Sounds of Spring

Spring has (hopefully) sprung here in Sofia. I'm sure we'll get some more snowstorms, but the grass is greening up, flowers are starting to appear, birds are chirping, and martenitzi are getting taken off of wrists and hung on flowering tree branches (I myself am holding out a few more days). As I soaked in some sun this fine morning over breakfast on the patio, I couldn't help but enjoy the sound of the birds. I think the birds here sing much more than in other places I've lived. Woodpeckers (several kinds), owls, jays, hawks, various songbirds -- so many kinds withing 300 meters of my house! I don't know if it's because of the deciduous forest here that there is more bird diversity than in the Western US, or because the park-like school campus provides a refuge from the concrete jungle of Sofia, or because my ears are just tuned into hearing things that don't sound like snow. :) I'm also happy to report that, as much as we miss Montana, winter is probably 2-3 months shorter here, something I'm totally OK with. Sofia had a lovely fall, and I think spring will be nice too -- two seasons that don't really exist in Bozeman. Spring break is coming in less than a week (Dad will be here on Wednesday!), and we're ready! I walked around the woodlot behind my house with my still camera, trying to catch the sounds of spring. I put the video on lowest quality, just because I was really trying to catch the sounds more than the visuals. My apologies for the sometimes jerky Blair Witch-like footage. Maybe I'll try this again soon with our camcorder, which I suppose might do better with audio & video. In the meantime, enjoy, and you'll probably have to turn up the volume on your computer to hear much. You also can appreciate Saturday-morning construction, traffic noise, bees, barking dogs -- I think it's a nice mix. The first video is a close up of some bees in the newly bloomed wildflowers in-between the faculty housing and the classrooms, and the second & third are taken along the path in the woodlot.