Birding Notes

Late this morning a relatively small but stocky bird with a long tail, flying into a strong wind, spread its wings and settled in the top branches of a pecan tree. It was a Sharp-shinned Hawk, its body compact, its round head small in proportion to the body, with a very long tail showing dark and light gray bands. The back looked gray, and its breast looked pale and colorless, but I wasn’t close enough to see its plumage or features in detail. When a Crow flew by just on the other side of the tree, the hawk looked very small in comparison. After watching it sit quietly for three or four minutes, I moved a step closer – and it immediately flew, with the neat, compact flapping characteristic of a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Because it was again flying into a strong wind, it didn’t glide much, if at all, before it flew out of sight behind more trees and houses.

A little further down the road, two Chimney Swifts flew over, twittering – the first ones I’ve seen here this season. And House Wrens also have arrived. One sang its effervescent song around the back deck of our house this morning, and I also heard at least four or five more singing in other places in the neighborhood.

I have mixed feelings about the House Wrens. They’re relatively new birds in our neighborhood, rapidly becoming common during spring and summer over the past decade. Their songs are cheery, but can become monotonous, and they are known as “fierce competitors for nest holes.” The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “All About Birds” website notes that they “will harass and peck at much larger birds, sometimes dragging eggs and young out of a nest site they want – even occasionally killing adult birds. In some areas they are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers, and chickadees.”

I have not found any reference to House Wrens posing a threat to Carolina Wrens, which are pretty feisty and aggressive themselves, and their populations seem to be expanding and in no apparent danger. But I would definitely be sorry if House Wrens became more common here and Carolina Wrens less – even if it’s only in our neighborhood or around our own yard. Though so common it’s often overlooked, a Carolina Wren’s song is one of the most beautiful gifts of any day.

Early this morning the bright, insistent song of a Red-eyed Vireo drew me out onto the deck – Here I am; where are you? Over here, up in the tree. It’s the first Red-eyed Vireo of the season here. The early morning was breezy, sunny and green – with leaves coming out everywhere now. The Vireo sang from a perch near the top of a tall sweet gum tree, among its new, fresh-green, star-shaped leaves. It sang and sang from one spot, not moving around as much as Red-eyed Vireos usually do. The song was clear, bright and fast-tempo – and I could just see the bird well enough to see its slender shape, plain olive-gray back, pale breast, white eyebrow, and black streak through the eye.

A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird zipped by me and settled on the feeder, where it stayed for a long, deep sip. Although I just saw him for the first time yesterday, I think hummingbirds have probably been here for several days at least, maybe a couple of weeks. We’re seeing them now because I just put up a feeder two days ago.It was another sunny, very warm day with only a few distant white clouds in a hazy blue sky. The suddenly warm weather, following a lot of rain last week, seems to be bringing out everything almost at once. The redbuds now are thick with pink blossoms, and this morning I noticed that our river birches are covered in small, shimmering, new-green leaves. Most water oaks and tulip poplars are fully green, and even pecan trees and white oaks now have catkins and the small beginnings of new leaves. A few dogwoods in the woods have begun to open into lacy white bloom.

The long, cold rain was followed by a day of slow clearing, then warm, sunny, colorful days with blue skies and big white clouds. The first few leaves on the hardwood trees are still just beginning to show. Two young redbud trees in our front yard are opening into deep-pink bloom. A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and a tiny, fluttering Blue Azure flew around the edges of the woods.

Mornings sound more and more full of birdsong – Eastern Phoebe, Northern Cardinal, Chipping Sparrow, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow and House Finch all are singing. Bluebirds fly in and out of the nest box frequently, though I haven’t seen them carrying nest materials and am not sure what they’re doing at this point. Brown-headed Nuthatches chatter. A Downy Woodpecker drums loudly on a large limb of a pecan tree near the corner of our house. A Red-bellied Woodpecker calls its quurrr – an almost musical call that always sounds like spring to me. Most of the descriptions and recordings I’ve heard of this call sound somewhat harsh and flat, but the call I hear so often in our woods, especially in late winter and through the spring, is light, with a lush, verdant quality.

The Louisiana Waterthrush that arrived in mid March continues to sing along the creek – though so far this year I’ve heard only this one singing in the neighborhood, and no others. On April 6, I heard a Ruby-crowned Kinglet’s exuberant song for the first time this spring.

Many Pine Siskins still remain in the neighborhood – not yet gone for the season – their zhreeee calls mixed with the mews of American Goldfinches, and large flocks of Cedar Waxwings gather in several spots – in our own yard they seem to come for the red berries of the Savannah hollies and the blue berries of mahonias.

The highlight of the morning for me today was seeing two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in the tops of water oaks, silvery-gray little sprites with long, flicking tails edged in white. Their whispery spee-spee calls caught my attention – I thought I heard them yesterday but hadn’t been able to see them. This time I was able to find them quickly and watched them for several minutes as they flitted and flashed actively around in the tops of the trees, fairy-like, easy to see because the leaves are still quite small. Welcome back.

The first few sunny, mild days of April passed in something of a haze for me, since I was kept mostly inside by a sore throat and fever. Today brought an all-day rain, cold and gray and falling steadily for hours, but it wasn’t bleak. It was an April “greening rain,” the kind of rain a gardener loves, an early spring rain that drenches the ground and brings new color to the landscape almost overnight, a faint, hazy green all around. Small leaves have appeared on the water oaks and on vines and weedy plants, grasses and shrubs look fresh instead of drab, and one small branch of a young cherry tree we planted last year is covered with exquisite frail-pink blossoms.