Birding Notes

On a warm, sunny, breezy, colorful spring morning, a songbird was moving around in the small yellow-green leaves and catkins of water oaks in our front yard. I’d been watching for warblers, vireos and other neotropical migrants and had not heard or seen many yet, far fewer than usual, it has seemed. This one was high overhead and frustratingly hard to see among the new foliage, but it looked familiar. The leaves shifted and rustled in gusts of wind, and the bird was quiet, not singing or making any sound I could hear. But gradually I could see that it was sleek and slender, with a gray-green back, dark cap, and cream-white belly, a distinctive white stripe over the eye and dark streak through the eye – a Red-eyed Vireo. It’s the first one of the season here around our yard, and it’s somewhat unusual to see one before hearing its song.

Though one of the most common songbirds in eastern forests and woodlands, a Red-eyed Vireo is known for being more often heard than seen. Inconspicuous in the treetops, it moves through the branches, searching for caterpillars and other insects, and usually staying screened among the leaves – though it sings almost constantly all day long during the spring and summer, a series of phrases and pauses, often described as something like, Here I am; where are you; over here; up in the tree, repeated over and over for hours. It’s a simple, rather pretty song, though to some it can become monotonous.

April has begun with picture-perfect spring weather, lots of new green foliage and flowering trees and shrubs, and birdsong, especially in the mornings. At times, the fresh green leaves in the trees seem full of invisible little birds – mostly American Goldfinch, a few Pine Siskins still around, and singing Yellow-rumped Warblers. Together these can make the treetops seem to shimmer with songs and chatter.

Chipping Sparrows trill from more open perches. A Louisiana Waterthrush continues to sing enthusiastically around the creek, and a Black-and-white Warbler sings its weesa-weesa-weesa in a patch of trees and privet thicket down the street.

And many other birds are singing – Brown Thrasher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Mockingbird, White-throated Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Eastern Phoebe, American Robin, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Towhee, House Finch, and occasionally an Eastern Bluebird or a Pine Warbler, though they both seem rather quiet lately.

Meanwhile, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Hermit Thrush and Golden-crowned Kinglets seem to have drifted away, headed north for the season. I haven’t seen a Sapsucker or a Hermit Thrush since the end of March, and no longer hear the light, sharp calls of the Golden-crowned Kinglets along the wooded stretch where they almost always could be found during the winter.