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   My wife was sitting on the couch playing on her iPad when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She glanced up to see a hummingbird staring intently in the window at her. It was as if the tiny bird was saying, “We’re back, come feed us!” She immediately prepared some sugar water while I got a plant hanger and placed it in a planter box just off the porch. We each grabbed a cup of coffee and went to the porch to enjoy the morning and see how long it would take for the hummers to find their food. We were there for perhaps fifteen minutes when a female hummingbird flew up to where the feeder had been last year and spotted it in its new location. She flew down and drank her fill. A few minutes later, a male came directly to the feeder and drank.

   Later that day, while back on the porch, we heard some birds singing in the nearby oak trees. It is difficult for me to remember all the different bird calls from one year to the next when we do not hear all of them for four to six months during the winter. I went on the internet and checked my go to resource for everything about birds at the Cornell University Department of Ornithology. I checked for Baltimore orioles and the university recording matched the sound we were hearing. I immediately went in and got some grape jelly and put it out for the birds. In short order, a pair of orioles showed up and started enjoying themselves at the feeder. When he had eaten his fill, he flew up in the tree just above the feeder and started singing at the top of his lungs. I do not know if he was trying to call his friends in to share or if he was just so happy he could not stand it. Before long another pair showed up. The next morning, four pairs of Baltimore orioles and a pair of orchard orioles were all fighting over the jelly. If the first guy had just been quiet about it, he could have had the whole thing to himself. Now he has to compete with all the orioles in the area.

   Saturday morning, I went to try my luck again with turkey hunting at dark-thirty in the morning. I had no more than gotten set down when a whip-poor-will started calling from close by. Apparently, they are also back from their migration trip in the south. He seemed quite pleased with himself as he perched a few feet above the turkey blind calling “whip-poor-will” as loud as he could. It is rather entertaining for a while to hear one up this close but after a while it becomes downright annoying. As daylight broke, the noisy bird finally decided to be quiet and go to bed for the day. About that time, a deer walked by, glancing around nervously. She could tell something was not quite right, but was not sure what it was. She finally got close enough to catch my scent and bounded off. As the morning wore on, I had the opportunity to see more orioles and many other birds, just no turkeys. There were several gobbling in the are but were not interested in moving from their chosen strutting position.

   We have been enjoying the migratory birds from the porch as well as listening to the turkeys’ gobble and cluck in the timber. I know the hummingbirds and orioles enjoy being back while the turkeys just ignore us.

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