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Letter to a Kentucky Warbler
Encountering a secretive warbler and crossing into another world
© Andrew Weitzel
In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a Kentucky Warbler, an “uber-skulky” species that’s hard to find but brings “warbler-iffic joy” when Drew hears them.
BirdNote®
Letter to a Kentucky Warbler
Written by J. Drew Lanham
[South Carolina soundscape]
This is BirdNote. I'm J. Drew Lanham, an ornithologist, naturalist and writer, and this is a note I've written to a bird I love.
[Kentucky Warbler song]
Dear Kentucky Warbler,
Are you real? It's hard to believe the way that citrine melds into your mossy olive drab back and how those black sideburns drip down your cheeks. Remembering a close encounter with you one mid-May day for about half an hour, and I thought I'd crossed over some ethereal boundary into another world. You singing that ringing "REDEEP REEDEEP REDEEP" —
[Kentucky Warbler song]
— telling me you're hidden deep in the gap-tangle of some new greening spring woods, the resounding solo is a siren's draw into warbler-iffic joy!
[Kentucky Warbler song]
Besides searching in vain for your other uber-skulky friends like the Connecticut and Mourning Warblers, you've revealed yourself to me from time to time, as a bird blessing.
I'm hoping that you find more tangles to hang out in and maybe make more little ones like yourself. I know it's getting harder to find the special tangly spots in big woods you need to be who you are, but I promise to keep working to save your viney world. Sure, Kentucky might be your name, but I claim you in my own State of heart and mind, my "side-burn bird".
[Kentucky Warbler song]
Adoringly,
Drew
[Kentucky Warbler song]
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Environmental ML306026 recorded by David L. Ross, Jr., and Kentucky Warbler ML73934 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote October 2023
Narrator: J. Drew Lanham
ID# letter-KEWA-01-2023-10-20 letter-KEWA-01