Red-winged Blackbird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, March 2026 — on a dull day in late March, I took a walk down to the wetlands behind the first row of houses along my street and found it full of Red-winged Blackbirds. All males, but already doing a lot of competitive singing. I broke my own rule against using recordings (since, I justified, they are not even establishing territories yet) and played a blackbird song to get a few to pop up where I could see them. I thought maybe we could get a conversation going, but honestly, they know the difference—the recording is only, after all, the part of the song I can hear. Their song, the one they hear, has a lot of higher harmonics where the blackbird life lives in it, that I just do not hear and that no instrument can record or play back. We can appreciate Blackbirds, but only at a lower harmonic. This is as things are and should be. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at about 800mm equivalent field of view crop. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.