A Yellow-throated Vireo, and the Tambourine Songs of Yellow-rumped Warblers
This morning a Yellow-throated Vireo sang in the low limbs of the white oaks that hang over our back deck. When I heard the song from inside – especially the signature three-eight phrase – I went outside, only half hoping to be able to find it before it was gone, and was amazed to find it calmly singing from a branch so close I barely needed binoculars to see it well. Framed among the fresh-green new leaves of the oaks, almost at eye-level – olive-green head and back, bright yellow throat and breast, and striking yellow spectacles, two white wingbars – it was the closest and best view of a Yellow-throated Vireo I’ve enjoyed in a long time. As it sang, it moved slowly through the oaks, and then beyond, making its way through low branches around the edge of the yard and toward the trees next door – all the time singing and singing its burry, mellow phrases.
It was a clear, sunny morning with big white clouds, remnants of more rain showers yesterday, and many shades of very lush new green all around, as the leaves on most trees are out or coming out now. Yellow-rumped Warblers have begun to sing – the drab, brownish-gray, streaked little birds that all winter have spoken only in dry check calls as they fly – have now changed into spring plumage, coal-black, gray and white markings, with yellow patches on the sides and on the rump. There are so many of them, it seems as if they’re everywhere, filling the trees with their lovely, loose, musical songs, as if the leaves themselves were shaking like softly jingling tambourines.
Mourning Doves, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Brown-headed Nuthatch and two Downy Woodpeckers came and went from the feeder in the front yard. A Chipping Sparrow sang across the street, a Pine Warbler from nearby in the woods, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in a wax myrtle. A Louisiana Waterthrush whistled from down around the creek, and a White-throated Sparrow from a hedge of dense shrubs. An Eastern Towhee called, and two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers called spee-spee in an area of thickets and tall pines and sweet gums.