Spark Bird: The First Robin of Spring

BirdNote^®

Spark Bird: The First Robin of Spring

Written by Mark Bramhill

Ashley Ahearn: This is BirdNote.

Rasheena Fountain: My name is Rasheena Fountain. I am a writer, I write about the environment.

In kindergarten, I had a teacher named Miss Beak. She was my favorite teacher. And one of the things that she did to encourage natural connections with the students in her class — she had a contest to see who could see the first robin of the spring. And so whoever reported back seeing the first robin of the spring would get a prize. Looking back, I don't know if my classmates were that excited. But I was super jazzed about it, and I remember walking home from school and seeing a robin, just, like, sitting on top of green grass, and being super excited.

     [American Robin song]

The next day, I told her I saw it and I won the contest. And the gift that Miss Beak gave me was a book, The Velveteen Rabbit. She wrote a little note in front of it, and it became one of my favorite stories.

Ashley Ahearn: When Rasheena grew up, she studied environmental science and worked at her local Audubon Society. Now she writes about nature and diversity in the outdoors.

And even all these years later, whenever Rasheena sees a robin, she thinks back to Miss Beak.

     [music]

For BirdNote, I’m Ashley Ahearn.

     [American Robin song and music]

###
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Narrator: Ashley Ahearn
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by
Music: “New York - Mad Rush” by Thibault Cauvin (from the album Cities II)
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2019 BirdNote   October 2019/2021

ID#  sparkbird-02-2019-10-08    sparkbird-02

https://www.rasheenafountain.com/