Awaiting the Rise of a Full Moon – Carolina Wrens Singing Back and Forth
Not long after sunset this evening, a clear, quiet, blue-gray sky looked empty of clouds. A Carolina Wren began to sing nearby – chur-eee, chur-eee, chur-eee. It was answered by another Carolina Wren in a neighbor’s yard, singing the same two-syllable song. They sang back and forth a few times, before a third Carolina Wren down in the woods chimed in with the same song, and I could even hear a fourth Carolina Wren responding with a similar chur-eee, chur-eee, chur-eee, very far away to the southeast.
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird came to the feeder hanging from the deck; an Eastern Bluebird sang its blurry notes; a Red-bellied Woodpecker called quurrrr, a Great Crested Flycatcher called a full-throated whreeep from somewhere down in the woods, and a Scarlet Tanager began to sing its strident song from a tall oak on the edge of our yard, interjecting a chick-brrr call several times.
As the twilight deepened, birds fell silent, and a big, gleaming, white-gold moon drifted up through the trees in the southeast, in a clear and cloudless evening sky. Crickets chirped, though the air felt cool.