I heard just one note and my heart soared! I had been filled with energy all morning. Something about the way the sunlight was spilling from the sky was different. I couldn’t pinpoint it, until I heard the note.
The single note of the varied thrush. For me, that means spring is here. It’s really the first bird call I notice in the spring. I got to thinking about it…..why is the single note of the varied thrush the first call? Is it coincidence?
I’m not much of a believer in coincidence. I look for patterns and order. I thought about a conversation I had many years ago with my friend, Judy Rice. Judy is a bird expert and fellow photographer. She explained to me that when spring arrives, birds get a flush of hormones and start to sing. If you listen carefully, you will notice that it takes a while (maybe a week or two) for a bird to sing its song perfectly. A sort of abbreviated, even crude, version of the song is the first thing you hear. Eventually, the full-fledged song that you are familiar with takes over.
So it makes sense to me that the varied thrush, whose song is only one note, doesn’t need much time to learn the “tune.” Which begs the question….can you make a tune with just one note?
Antonio Carlos Jobim tried it with his famous song “One Note Samba.” If you listen, you’ll quickly notice that the song has more than one note. It starts and repeats a single note for the first few bars, but then it modulates up. Eventually, the song gets more complicated and melodic.
Instead of thinking of the One Note Samba as analogous to the song of the varied thrush, I think it more analogous to the early spring song of the American robin, a close cousin of the varied thrush. The start of the samba corresponds to the hormones of the robin starting to flow, so the robin can only get out a few notes. But just as Jobim’s song builds and gets more complicated over time, so does the song of the robin.
I started listening more closely to bird calls in the spring after my talk with Judy, and it has enriched my life. If you pay close attention to the birds as they call and sing in the early spring, you might be able to hear their songs develop over time, too.
Which is the way it is with nature (actually, just about everything). If you pay close attention, you will be astonished by what is right in front of you!
Spring is a time of hope, and I feel very hopeful right now. I am preparing my old 1995 Mallard Europa RV for the drive north. On April 13th, I plan to leave Mt. Vernon, WA, to cross the border into Canada and then ferry over to Vancouver Island. I will head to the north tip of the Island, and then take the BC Ferry to Prince Rupert, BC. From there, I’ll head north towards Haines. This will be my twentieth time to drive the 2,000 mile journey between Haines and Bellingham, WA.
I am an explorer at heart, so I’m always looking for variations on the route north. This time, rather than turning north straight up the Cassiar Highway, I plan to explore the Nass River Country. During my years of studying Pacific Northwest and BC First Nation history and culture, the Nass River region has kept coming up. Native oral accounts state that Raven, the most important and most colorful figure in Northwest Coast stories, was born at the headwaters of the Nass River. A strong Native presence is still there, and I look forward to connecting with the land and people (as much as I can driving through in an old RV!) I will be posting photographs of my journey on my Instagram account, @joeordonezphoto. I invite you to follow along.
Upon arrival in Skagway, I’ll be starting the 2023 training for Rainbow Glacier Adventures. This promises to be a busy year, with all the “pent-up demand.” I’ve assembled an outstanding team.
It was a long time ago, before the days of Tom Cruise, but some of you might remember how the old TV show “Mission Impossible” started. The pulse of that great song, the lighting of a match, and then the words ….”your mission, should you choose to accept it” coming out of a vintage cassette player. Then the gray-haired (but robust) leader of the group (Peter Graves) gets to work to assemble the team.
Now I am the gray-haired (yet robust!) leader and that’s exactly what I have been doing the last few months….assembling our team. Before the first guests arrive, I will run a multi-day guide training to make sure the we are ready.
Building a team is like a marriage. The first, and most important step, is to pick the right person! I am confident that my wife, Edie, and I chose correctly when we decided to marry twenty years ago. Like a marriage, the road can be bumpy, and I’ve experienced some bumps during this year’s hiring process.
Just like marriage, a common vision must be shared. What is our vision for Rainbow Glacier Adventures? It is clearly stated on our RGA mission statement: To connect our guests with Alaska through our high-quality team.
Connection. This is what we are all hungry for. This is what is missing for so many of us. Maybe you feel connected to those around you, but you don’t feel connected to nature. Or maybe you feel connected to nature, but you don’t feel connected to others. Sadly, there are too many of us who feel disconnected from nature and also feel disconnected from others.
That is the core problem with our society — lack of connection. Fortunately, there are those who are connected to both nature and to those around them. Those are the type of people I look for during the hiring process. I am confident I’ve picked a strong team for Rainbow Glacier Adventures this year.
Rainbow Glacier Adventures won’t solve all the world’s problems by taking our guests on four-hour tours in Alaska. But Alaska is powerful, and Alaskan nature screams out to be noticed. Our goal is to help foster that connection. If even a tiny spark of connection is felt, that spark has the potential to grow into a flame.
“Your mission- should you choose to accept it!”
I accept it.
Joe Ordonez, March 2023
