Dawn Songs on the Spring Equinox
At 7:00 this morning, about forty minutes before sunrise, a full chorus of birdsong was well underway. I celebrated the Equinox in a very lazy way – by lying in bed and sleepily listening through open windows, one of the most luxurious and pleasant ways to start a day. Many birds were singing, among them – Eastern Phoebe, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Eastern Towhee – singing an especially pretty and rather delicate Drink-your-tee and also Drink-tee – Eastern Bluebird, Pine Warbler and a Chipping Sparrow singing its dawn song – short bursts of light trills.
Most of the birds singing were year-round residents here, but among them were at least two winter residents, too – the quick, sharp, complex song of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and the slow plaintive whistles of a White-throated Sparrow. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker mewed several times as it seemed to move from tree to tree, very close to the house.
A Louisiana Waterthrush sang from down in the woods around the creek – the only returning summer songbird in the mix.
The dominant singers, however, were two Brown Thrashers – one singing in our next-door neighbor’s yard, and the other, I think, sang from the top of a tall, slender river birch on the far side of our front yard, where I saw it still singing later in the morning. By 7:30, the full flush of birdsong had faded, though singing continued in a more scattered way. Ten minutes later, I was out on the back deck in time to see the sun rise – a rouge-red, shimmering ball, with no clouds around, drifting up into a clear blue sky.