I live on a beautiful avenue on the northern edge of Florence, and I have the enjoyment of looking out at a line of pretty plane trees that border the Mugnone, a “torrente” or what we would call a creek in the US. For the past few weeks, a few of the plane trees have been filled with a certain species of really noisy bird.

I know very little (nothing really) about birds and have no idea what species this is. But, they put on an amazing show!

Their presentation goes like this: first, thousands of them gather in one tree. They begin their song, which sounds like racket to me. All of a sudden, no matter what I have been doing inside, I realize they are at it again. This happens about sundown, or about 4 – 4:30 p.m.

They make a terrific racket for many minutes and then apparently someone sends a signal and they all stop their song. They fly away almost immediately, only to regroup a little later and begin the whole show again.

It’s interesting! I’ve been thinking of it as “rein bird games”, you know, like reindeer games? I don’t recall if this goes on all winter; I’ll try to pay attention to this this year.

At any rate, happy day after Christmas. Are you exhausted?