Summer Morning Tapestry
This morning, under a gentle blue and white summer sky, the sunlight shimmered through gaps in the oaks and pines around our back yard, and all the trees and bushes dripped with rainwater left by a good heavy thunderstorm that came through overnight. Small branches, twigs and leaves littered the ground and the deck and the roof. The rain was welcome, bringing a little bit of a break to a string of very hot July days. And now the world felt warm and wet and looked very, very green. Cicadas already sang loudly.
From somewhere down in the woods that stretch beyond the yard, maybe along the creek, came the morning song of a Wood Thrush. A cool, fluted melody that drifted through the dripping trees. An Acadian Flycatcher called its sharp, neat notes – a touch of clarity against a somewhat blurry background.
A Carolina Wren sat on our deck rail and belted out a loud and brilliant song, and other wrens nearby answered with trills. A Tufted Titmouse sang peter-peter, and a Carolina Chickadee fee-bee, fee-bay. Other birds sounded further away than the wrens – the distant, hollow cawping calls of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo; the ringing rattle of a Hairy Woodpecker; the hoarse, insistent refrain of a Scarlet Tanager.
A Mourning Dove began to coo from trees right on the edge of the yard, full, soft coos, like a calming, comforting touch. A House Finch whistled a pretty tune. An Eastern Bluebird warbled a blurry, sweet song, and flew across the grass in a heart-stopping flash of blue.