A new type of graduation display?

Every spring, as I work in my gardens I'll look up high in the trees when I hear a familiar song. I search the tops of the tallest branches for that flash, and it's there. This lasts about four days, then it's back to the usual suspects in my corner lot.

Not this year, however. I have been feeding grape jelly and oranges to my visitors. I've placed cut lengths of yarn in a suet feeder, and they have accepted them, flying up into a tree next door with them. Once it seems that little ones have hatched, I have my mealworm source scoped out. They sing all day long, and I'm happy to have them stay this year.

I never really thought about just how providential the timing was until yesterday, though. You see, yesterday my husband and I became the parents of a high school graduate for the first time. We'd been helped by two grandmas for a couple days, cooking wonderful food and getting all of it ready for family and friends after the ceremony. As we sat on our patio, birds were flitting about and singing, giving everyone yet another reason to enjoy the first really nice day this year. When Cooper's friends were here, making the rounds of all the graduation parties that day, our new guests made sure to sit in the black walnut overhead and sing loudly and clearly. The new graduates squinted up into the trees, searching out the source of the birdsong. One of the girls spotted it first, and said, "Oh look Cooper, you have music just for our graduation!"

True enough. The school colors are black and orange, and my welcome yard birds are a pair of Baltimore Orioles. What a wonderful decoration for the Class of 2005. Party America couldn't have done any better than this!