Nature Note:Scarlet Tanager

I hadn't been in the mountains for a few years;I've just driven by.Finally I set a morning aside to go back up.A scarlet tanager greeted me there,a male with subtropical red plumage and a conversational song.He breeds from Southeast Canada to the East-Central U.S.,in mature pine and oak forests.This bird had spent the winter from Colombia to Bolivia.He's another international bird,a binder of nations to each other,a healer of many hearts.