Birds on a Hot Summer Morning
Early this morning it already felt very warm on the porch, but it was still very pleasant, the trees green, the sunlight looking misty as it filtered through the leaves. And there seemed to be more birds around than I’ve heard or seen in many days now, despite the extreme heat we are having.
A Yellow-billed Cuckoo called from the oaks nearby. It stayed well hidden high up in the canopy, but gave its dry, percussive call several times. Then it moved further away, and I heard its different calls, a hollow, echoing cawp-cawp-cawp.
An Acadian Flycatcher called its sharp pit-sah! from trees right along the edge of our back yard, much closer than it usually comes. It, too, stayed out of sight – a reclusive little gray bird that mostly stays down in the woods near the creek.
The soft pik-a-tuk calls of a Summer Tanager traveled through some thick vegetation nearby.
A Red-shouldered Hawk called kee-yer loudly several times from a nearby tree, before taking flight. Two, three, four Carolina Wrens sang – always and still the brightest singers and most vocal of our birds, trilling, burbling, fussing. A Northern Cardinal peeped and made its way toward the birdbath. An American Goldfinch flew overhead, mewing a soft potato-chip, potato-chip.
Two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds – one male and one female – came quietly and separately to the feeder. After a long period in which we’ve seen very few hummingbirds at all, they now seem to be coming a little more often, though still they are quiet, and I’ve only seen one encounter and chase so far.
Later in the day the temperature would reach the upper 90s on this very hot 4th of July.