Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
The long, cold rain was followed by a day of slow clearing, then warm, sunny, colorful days with blue skies and big white clouds. The first few leaves on the hardwood trees are still just beginning to show. Two young redbud trees in our front yard are opening into deep-pink bloom. A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and a tiny, fluttering Blue Azure flew around the edges of the woods.
Mornings sound more and more full of birdsong – Eastern Phoebe, Northern Cardinal, Chipping Sparrow, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow and House Finch all are singing. Bluebirds fly in and out of the nest box frequently, though I haven’t seen them carrying nest materials and am not sure what they’re doing at this point. Brown-headed Nuthatches chatter. A Downy Woodpecker drums loudly on a large limb of a pecan tree near the corner of our house. A Red-bellied Woodpecker calls its quurrr – an almost musical call that always sounds like spring to me. Most of the descriptions and recordings I’ve heard of this call sound somewhat harsh and flat, but the call I hear so often in our woods, especially in late winter and through the spring, is light, with a lush, verdant quality.
The Louisiana Waterthrush that arrived in mid March continues to sing along the creek – though so far this year I’ve heard only this one singing in the neighborhood, and no others. On April 6, I heard a Ruby-crowned Kinglet’s exuberant song for the first time this spring.
Many Pine Siskins still remain in the neighborhood – not yet gone for the season – their zhreeee calls mixed with the mews of American Goldfinches, and large flocks of Cedar Waxwings gather in several spots – in our own yard they seem to come for the red berries of the Savannah hollies and the blue berries of mahonias.
The highlight of the morning for me today was seeing two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in the tops of water oaks, silvery-gray little sprites with long, flicking tails edged in white. Their whispery spee-spee calls caught my attention – I thought I heard them yesterday but hadn’t been able to see them. This time I was able to find them quickly and watched them for several minutes as they flitted and flashed actively around in the tops of the trees, fairy-like, easy to see because the leaves are still quite small. Welcome back.