When I was growing up out on the rural route, our yard was alive with the chirps and twitter of dozens of varieties of birds this time of year. In addition to the usual parade of mockingbirds, blue birds, cardinals, blue jays et al, reveille was sounded most mornings by the plaintive call of a bobwhite quail, a bird that is becoming increasingly rare today.

Not only are the bobwhites numbers spiraling downward, I can think of at least two other species, common to us as kids, that are infrequently seen today; the meadow lark and the shrike, or "butcher bird".