This is Bird Note.

Morning dew sparkles on the leaves of an eastern hardwood forest.

It's May, and the chorus of spring bird song is nearing its peak.

The rich... of Spring Bird Song is nearing its peak.

The rich notes of a Carolina wren carried through the understory.

A year-round resident, it's been singing since the end of winter.

A chestnut-sided warbler joins in.

It has returned from winter in Costa Rica to the same patch of woods in which it nested last year.

Now we hear a scarlet tanager.

This striking long-distance migrant completed its journey from Bolivia in early May. There are the resounding notes of an oven bird letting us know it has returned safely from Belize after a long flight across the Gulf of Mexico.

And the whistled... a long flight across the Gulf of Mexico.

And the whistled notes of an eastern wood peewy are unmistakable. How different these woods must look to the peewy,

after a winter in the lowland forest of Peru.

By late May, the last of the migrants has arrived from the tropics.

All have journeyed across the continents, bringing us the gift of their songs. For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.