Wednesday, June 02, 2021

Paul Richardson: Nothing but bird calls

It is a warm, but cloudy morning in Red Bud, Illinois as I sat outside on a patio listening to the landscape awaken. As the crescendo of bird calls begins to erupt with the dawn, I keep hearing a call that aroused my curiosity. I knew the exact species of the bird but didn’t know the origins of what I assumed was, a colloquial name.

As soon as I could get to a device on which I could reference google.com, I looked up the name Rain Crow. It turns out that there is a Rain Crow, but it is not necessarily the species of pigeon called the Mourning Dove or Turtle Dove as I had always been told. 









The Rain Crow is actually a Yellow Billed Cuckoo. The dove that I had heard for years and was hearing on this morning is often referred to as a Rain Dove, which if you google Rain Dove you are going to see a lot of information about some, apparently, famous, or infamous person who identifies themselves with that name.

As my research continued, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t crazy after all. I began to come across articles, poetry and other writings that confirmed the use of the term Rain Crow to the Mourning Dove. The deeper I dug the more confusing this seemed to get.

So, I sat this morning listening to the coos of the Mourning Dove and a variety of at least eight other bird families. There may have been more, but separating the sounds became increasingly difficult as the number grew. 








“It looks like it is going to rain,” I thought to myself as I viewed the morning sky. “Maybe there is a valid reason that the Mourning Dove is referred to as the Rain Crow,” I continued to ponder.

We have been travelling to this small town in Illinois since the mid- ‘80’s. The goodwife has a substantial amount of family that resides here and the ones that live away had returned for a period of time during which this entire group including the goodwife had made plans to have some sort of cousin reunion. This was all good with me as this group of her extended family had taken me in and liked me from the very beginning. There is something to be said for people that are kind to me and from the onset adopted the attitude that they would overlook the obvious problems.

Because of this sense of peace that I get in the presence of these people, it was nice to sit, relax and listen to the birds this morning. I was all alone on the patio, as I was the only one up at that time. The goodwife was awake when I went outside and she would rise shortly and begin her morning ritual, but I would sit alone on the back patio, listen to the birds. All the while those Rain Crows keep calling out. “It looks like it’s going to rain.”

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