Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
What a gentle, lovely, surprising morning! Amazingly cool for early August, and the back yard trees were full of bird calls and songs, seeming more active than usual recently. A Great Crested Flycatcher called whreep and stayed around for several minutes. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo gave several hollow, knocking ka-ka-ka calls. Tufted Titmice and Carolina Wrens and Carolina Chickadees sang, and Northern Cardinals peeped. An American Goldfinch scattered its flyover notes. Crickets and other insects chirped. And the pik-a-tuk calls of a Summer Tanager laced through the trees. The nasal onk-onk-onk-onk of a White-breasted Nuthatch tracked its progress through the woods as it came closer and closer. A Downy Woodpecker whinnied. A Red-bellied Woodpecker rattled.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds came frequently to the feeder, often dueling and chasing. I watched one visiting the red blossoms on a hanging geranium plant. I don’t think it found much nectar there, but it was pretty to watch.
Then I was very happy to hear the sharp little check-mark call of an Acadian Flycatcher, which I’ve not heard for a few days – maybe because of very heavy rain for much of that time.
After a long stretch of extreme heat in July, early August brought us several days of rain and cloudy days and much cooler temperatures. The rain was welcome – but at times torrential, falling steadily and heavy for hours. Now this morning, the temperature is only 69 degrees. There are still a lot of clouds, but soft sunlight is beginning to break through. Carolina Wrens burble and trill and sing.
And then – maybe happiest of all – a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher called its wispy spee-spee! And another Blue-gray Gnatcatcher responded with its own spee calls, the first time I’ve heard them in trees around our yard in quite a while.