‘Up in the sky! Look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”

         Sorry Superman, it’s a bird. But not just any bird, it’s one among many that hasn’t been seen here since last fall. It’s the yearly migration of these birds back from warmer climes in the south to our warming northern world.

This is the best time of the year for those of us seriously engaged in seeing the most amazingly beautiful birds who are arriving in our woods and fields daily — some to stay, build nests and make families, while others to stop by briefly on their way further north.

And they don’t just look beautiful, they sing gorgeous songs as well. Here’s an interesting fact — it used to be thought that only male birds sing, but scientific research is now showing us that many females sing as well.

About three weeks ago, I began getting up and leaving the house uncharacteristically early for me to see the new arrivals as they slowly began to appear, though you don’t always have to go very far to find them. Yesterday, as I walked past an upstairs window, I caught sight of a black and white warbler sitting on a pine branch no more than 10 feet from the house!

This is not a bird that just sits — rather, it’s always on the move, hunting for bugs along tree trunks and limbs. But there it was just sitting and showing off its vivid black and white feathered coat.

I love these birds. Just their names give me a thrill: Cape May warbler, magnolia warbler, blue-headed vireo, ovenbird, blue-grey gnatcatcher, great crested flycatcher, to name just a few. Oh my!

And each of these species of bird has its own unique feathered coat of color and pattern and its own special song as well. It’s a constant brain exercise to figure out which species of bird I’m seeing and hearing. Songs can be the most challenging.

Some are easily identifiable, but others not so much. We birdwatchers attach interesting, hopefully memorable, mnemonics to these songs such as “wit-chi-ta wit-chi-ta” for the common yellow throat’s song. Or “sweet, sweet little more sweet” for the yellow warbler. This, we think, will help us identify that bird’s song in the future.

Of course, the craziness of our current political nightmare grabs my attention even when I’m searching for my favorite birds. But sometimes I can let go of the outside world and let myself fall into birdwatching heaven as if it were all that exists at that moment in time. Those are the best moments, just me and the birds. Certainly not the former guy, the one currently pinned to a defendant’s chair in a Manhattan courtroom, trying to stay awake while his criminal election interference case is presented to a jury of his peers.

This is the world we’re living in. We have an ex-president, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, on trial for election interference, threatening daily to destroy our democracy and become, by whatever means necessary, the dictator he has admitted he wants to be. In a Time magazine interview last week about what he intends to do should he win (or steal) the 2024 election come November, he filled the air with nonsense while never really answering any question he was asked.

What was clear to anyone paying attention was that he will do as he pleases, rule of law and Constitution be damned. For example, when asked about the potential for political violence, should he lose the election, he responded with “you know, it depends.” It depends?

And let’s not forget his endless fraudulent and corrupt behavior. Case in point is his Truth Social media company that recently went public after merging with a shell corporation already listed on the stock exchange. After rising sharply at first, it tanked and then rose again. But Truth Social lost over $55 million in 2023, generating very little revenue. This is not a company to put your hard-earned dollars into, so why would anyone buy this stock? His supporters who bought into it at his request are only going to lose and lose big in the end.

Just the other day, the news broke that the accounting firm, BF Borgers, which the former guy hired to audit Truth Social’s books and to file required financial reports to the SEC, has been charged with widespread fraud and accused of filing more than 1,500 fraudulent audit reports to the SEC for more than 500 public companies. It has been fined $14 million and permanently banned from doing audits of publicly traded companies ever again!

Now who else would you expect the former guy to hire to watch over the finances of his money-losing social media platform?

That’s enough of that. I’m going to take my binoculars and head out for another bird-filled adventure. We all need a break now and then, and this is how I do it.

Karen Gardner of Haydenville can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.