First blossoming tree

I was outside working.  Many of the birds have returned and were singing their little hearts out.  One of their songs finally broke through to me and I stopped.  Sounded like the brown thrasher!  It's not on an endangered list or anything but until the last few years I could have counted on one hand the number of times I've seen one (and had fingers to spare).  These last few years though one has found the plum copse in the back of the stockade an ideal home.  I couldn't see the bird clearly through the branches but could tell it was a little larger than a robin, reddish brown, and had a long tail.  That's a thrasher.  Her repertoire of songs/bird imitations is phenomenal.  She went silent and dropped down out of the tree to the ground so I went back to work.  The dog barked.  Whip may be a noisy thing in the house when I want to sleep but outside her bark means something.  Her nose was pointed up at the bird house on the stockade and I could hear some squawking.  I reached up and flipped open the door.   Out swooped a tree swallow followed by a house sparrow.  Figured.  Swallows and sparrows have fought over that house every year.   Twice I've found dead swallows in it.  There was the beginning of a swallow's nest in it.   I checked that there were no eggs, removed the nest, and left the door open.  I'll give it a few days for both parties to find new digs before closing the door again.