Red-Winged Blackbird

These birds are my absolute favorite (they wouldn't be listed here if they weren't, duh). I know I said it doesn't feel like summer without Dahlias, but really, screw Dahlias. If I had to pick between the two I would want Red-Winged Blackbirds. The males. The females might as well be a different bird. They're super boring in color and song.

The song of Red-Winged Blackbirds instantly brings me back to late summer afternoons by the pond on my parents' property. We'd climb along this branch that hung over the water, right in the thick of the Cattail reeds, and explore everything. Frogs, and bird, and weird water flora. I remember laying on the road with my head hanging down to shout through the culvert as my younger brother shouted back from the other side. I remember the dogs lapping up the stinky water, and the ducks going crazy for the Duckweed. You'd think they hadn't eaten in years. We'd lose hours playing in and around that pond. I loved trying to make flotation devices so we could be closer the birds, and then failing miserably and having to trudge back through the sludge  when we inevitably sank. I can think of a million and a half memories of that pond, and all with the Red-Winged Blackbird soundtrack.