First-of-year bird songs

Heard some first-of-year songs from two species:

* On Thursday afternoon a Mourning Dove was sitting on the back fence coo-ing away. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've heard that song in 2010. I always have mixed emotions when I hear that song. I hated it when I was a little kid. One summer Evansville experimented with being in the Eastern time zone. It was like the land of the midnight sun. My siblings and I were sent to bed well before sunset. It was bad enough laying in bed while it was still light outside. But every evening a dove perched outside my window and taunted me with its coo-ing, almost as if he was saying "you're in bed and I'm not". :-)

* Friday morning there was a Dark-eyed Junco singing lustily from the spruce tree. First time for that song in 2010. To me, hearing that song is always a reminder that the juncos won't be around too much longer. Sure enough, Brock's departure date for juncos is only five weeks away for southern Indiana.