Mid-Winter Birdsong

These first few days of February have been a mix of cool, misty mornings and almost warm, half-sunny afternoons, with a new softness in the air. Pine Warblers sing more and more often, and their musical trills seem to become more fluent and expressive as the days go by.

Brown Thrashers are beginning to emerge from under the bushes and climb up into the lower limbs of trees, and I think they’re getting ready to sing.

Already Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse and House Finch are singing, too – all year-round residents here. An Eastern Towhee called a rich chur-wink from a perch in a crape myrtle in our front yard this morning, while a Brown-headed Nuthatch, two American Goldfinch, Chickadees, Titmice, two Downy Woodpeckers and several Chipping Sparrows more or less shared the two hanging feeders. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet chattered as it moved through some shrubs, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker mewed. Several Dark-eyed Juncos flew up together, flashing the white edges of their tails, from the mulched area around a hedge. White-throated Sparrows in the bushes called tight sibilant tseeeets, and Mourning Doves cooed.

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