Archive for July, 2024

Black Swallowtail

Thursday, July 4th, 2024

In a shady stretch of road late this morning, a Black Swallowtail butterfly fluttered and floated around me long enough to see its delicate “swallow tails.” Its markings of yellow, blue, orange and red against the black wings were too much in motion for me to see the patterns in detail, but it looked fresh and very pretty. Like a miniature stained-glass window in soft, shimmering flight.

So far this summer, we’ve seen very few butterflies at all, so this one seemed all the more beautiful, and I felt grateful that it lingered long enough for me to enjoy it for a few moments before it floated up further and away. 

Birds on a Hot Summer Morning

Thursday, July 4th, 2024

Early this morning it already felt very warm on the porch, but it was still very pleasant, the trees green, the sunlight looking misty as it filtered through the leaves. And there seemed to be more birds around than I’ve heard or seen in many days now, despite the extreme heat we are having. 

A Yellow-billed Cuckoo called from the oaks nearby. It stayed well hidden high up in the canopy, but gave its dry, percussive call several times. Then it moved further away, and I heard its different calls, a hollow, echoing cawp-cawp-cawp.

An Acadian Flycatcher called its sharp pit-sah! from trees right along the edge of our back yard, much closer than it usually comes. It, too, stayed out of sight – a reclusive little gray bird that mostly stays down in the woods near the creek. 

The soft pik-a-tuk calls of a Summer Tanager traveled through some thick vegetation nearby. 

A Red-shouldered Hawk called kee-yer loudly several times from a nearby tree, before taking flight. Two, three, four Carolina Wrens sang – always and still the brightest singers and most vocal of our birds, trilling, burbling, fussing. A Northern Cardinal peeped and made its way toward the birdbath. An American Goldfinch flew overhead, mewing a soft potato-chip, potato-chip. 

Two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds – one male and one female – came quietly and separately to the feeder. After a long period in which we’ve seen very few hummingbirds at all, they now seem to be coming a little more often, though still they are quiet, and I’ve only seen one encounter and chase so far. 

Later in the day the temperature would reach the upper 90s on this very hot 4th of July.  

Song of a Wood Thrush

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024

As I watered plants on the deck in the early afternoon – on a very hot, sunny day – the cool, fluted song of a Wood Thrush drifted up through the woods on the slope that leads down to the creek. The lovely, ethereal song seemed to bring with it the green and shade of the leaves, and the ripple of the water over rocks and sand. I stopped for several moments just to listen. We do not hear a Wood Thrush song very often this summer. Just every now and then, one comes by, and when it comes, I listen.