Sunrise – Eastern Towhee and Dark-eyed Junco
At first light this morning, on the first day of March, an Eastern Towhee sang through the sleepy sounds of softly falling rain. Drink-TEEE, Drink-TEEE, over and over again, a strong, enthusiastic morning song.
By the time the sun was supposed to rise, the rain had stopped, and I stood on the front porch. It looked as if we had gotten quite a lot of rain, the ground soggy, trees still dripping, puddles standing in the yard and driveway. Thick clouds still covered most of the sky, but were beginning to break up, and within a few minutes some blue began to show through as the sun came up behind me, and behind our house, and light and color began to spread.
The Towhee still held center stage, singing vigorously from the top of a crape myrtle at the head of the driveway. A bedraggled-looking Chipping Sparrow perched on top of the hanging feeder, hunched over it, steadily eating seeds. And many other birds sang in the background – Eastern Phoebe, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, House Finch, Eastern Bluebird, Pine Warbler. A quiet Northern Mockingbird sat on a low branch of a pecan tree.
Then I heard a new song, a gentle, jingling trill – not a Pine Warbler or a Chipping Sparrow, though similar to both. This trill was shorter, with a lighter, more airy quality. After a minute or two, I realized it was a Dark-eyed Junco, perched in the same crape myrtle with the Towhee, but down much lower, among a tangle of bare brown branches. Its song sounded like a longer version of one of the Junco’s calls, usually made when it’s startled into flight, a softly-ringing trill, a little like a muted, old-fashioned telephone.
For a few minutes, the bright black, red-orange and white Towhee sang its full-throated Drink-TEEE from the top of the bush, and the small, plump, dark-gray Junco sang its light and airy trill from below. Then the Towhee flew away and began singing from a neighbor’s yard, and the Junco stayed.
One White-throated Sparrow and a pair of Northern Cardinals foraged under the feeders. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet made its way quietly through bushes on the edge of the woods. A flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over. A few American Robins made their nervous-sounding calls, and one Robin sang. Crows cawed, and three stopped by in the treetops in the yard but did not stay long. A Red-bellied Woodpecker called quuuurrrr. Eight Canada Geese flew over, honking, heading south.