Acadian Flycatcher, Northern Parula – and Young Downy Woodpeckers
This morning the front yard sounded livelier than usual, mostly with the chatter and activity of two juvenile Downy Woodpeckers and the female parent. When I first came outside, one of the juveniles clung to a hanging block of seeds with the parent. It seemed to be doing fine at feeding itself, pecking enthusiastically at the seeds. But every now and then it fluttered its wings and made wheezy begging sounds, and the parent fed it.
The other juvenile – maybe a little more adventurous – sat on the edge of the birdbath, leaning down to take sips of water, sitting back up and tilting its head back to swallow. Then it hopped into the water and took a quick but thorough splashing, fluttering bath – and then flew to the trunk of a tree beside the feeder, where it pecked on the trunk for a few minutes, exploring, before joining the parent and other juvenile on the feeder, and begging to be fed.
At the same time, the Carolina Chickadee parents continued to go in and out of the ceramic hanging nest in the pecan tree. The pik-a-tuk calls of a Summer Tanager moved through the edge of the woods.
By late morning, the day had become very warm again – with a sunny, blue sky and high white cirrus clouds. A Red-shouldered Hawk was soaring very high and calling. The Indigo Bunting sang again in the field, this time from the top of a chinaberry tree on the edge of the power cut.
Toward the end of a walk through the neighborhood, it felt good to stop for a few minutes in the shade of a wooded spot, where the road comes close to a creek. Here a Northern Parula sang its somnolent, buzzy, summery song, and an Acadian Flycatcher called a plosive wheet-sit! An Acadian Flycatcher has been calling for several days from way down along the creek somewhere, but until today it had always come from very far away, so distant it was more like a rumor. This one was close, and it sounded crisp and clear. Like the Indigo Bunting’s song in the field, and the Tanagers’ pi-tuks in the woods, an Acadian Flycatcher’s quick, sharp calls around a lowland, wooded creek in summer make it feel like things are the way they should be.
A small greenish-gray bird with a slightly crested gray head, white eye-ring and white wing bars, an Acadian Flycatcher usually isn’t hard to find, perching on low branches to call frequently and hunt, and it’s not particularly shy. But because the woods surrounded a neighbor’s house, I didn’t go looking this morning, and was content anyway, just to stand for a few minutes and listen.