The whistling bird

Yesterday morning my son Ewan got up before dawn and I along with him.  We were sitting at the table and he was eating cereal and I was trying to stay awake when we heard what Ewan described as a whistle sound.  I told him that it was a bird singing and he gave me a strange look and then told me he thought in not so many words that it was cool that the bird was singing.  I wondered for a moment if it had just been that the long winter had caused Ewan to forget about singing birds, which I think is the case.  You see I am a birder and I take Ewan with me sometimes, though he is reluctant to go most of the time.  So I know he can recognize a bird singing.  I guess that I take for granted that I know the sound of a bird singing and that to a 4 year old child if they go many months without hearing it they may forget what it sounds like.  I decided to take this bird singing as a sign of hope that the long cold winter is almost at its end, and soon we will be hearing the birds sing every morning.