A Louisiana Waterthrush Returns, and Great Horned Owls Hoot at Sunset
Late this afternoon, the bright whistled notes of a Louisiana Waterthrush rose from down in the woods around the creek, the first one I’ve heard here this season. Its song – three or four clear whistled notes followed by a tumble of silvery chirping phrases – always feels to me like a flourish announcing the arrival of spring. It feels like the renewal of a promise when a Waterthrush returns, a sign that the woods and the creek are doing okay.
Though a Louisiana Waterthrush is a wood warbler – and definitely stays in the woods, close to the creek most of the time – it looks more like a thrush, with its smooth brown back, brown-streaked breast and white stripe over the eye, and a long, slender pointed bill. It bobs its tail as it walks along the banks or the rocks of a stream on bright pink legs. It’s an active, animated, expressive bird, lots of fun to watch and easy to find – but much of the time I’m just happy to hear its song and know that it’s there.
Later, not long before sunset, I heard the deep, foggy hoots of two Great Horned Owls again. During the past week I’ve heard them most evenings, usually just before or just after sunset. Last December, I also heard them almost every evening for three or four weeks – then not again until now. It’s possible I just haven’t been getting outside at the time of day when they are calling, so I don’t know for sure if they have been here since December, or if they come and go. It’s been a busy several months – so they could have been calling, and I just wasn’t hearing them. The hoots seem to come from the woods that cover the steep slope down to the creek behind many of the homes in our neighborhood – or they might come from trees along a power cut not far away. Sometimes they sound very close, but it’s hard to tell.