A Brown Thrasher and His Weedy Kingdom
Several Brown Thrashers now have begun to sing, but my favorite is still the first one I heard in mid February, singing cautiously from a low branch in a tangle of privet and other weeds around a number of tall water oaks. It’s been interesting to watch him gradually get bolder.
He has stayed in the same area, singing just about every time I’ve gone by, regardless of the time of day, and for several days he continued to sing from a low, almost hidden perch, rather quiet and slow, pausing often. Once, still in mid February, I stopped to watch as four Brown Thrashers moved actively around this spot, all making low, buzzy, agitated calls. They seemed to be contesting the territory. I assume one of them was the singer I’ve been watching – and I’m pretty sure he managed to hold onto the territory, because he has continued to sing from almost exactly the same spots.
The past few days he sounds more confident and louder. As I stopped to watch this morning, he began to move up in the tree, while singing, making his way higher and higher until he stopped just below the top of the tallest of the water oaks, still somewhat screened among the reddish-brown buds on the tips of the branches. From there, he sang and sang, tail tucked downward, head raised – but still watchful.
It looks like kind of a sad, rough territory, a scrubby mass of trees sprawling around yards and the road, surrounded by a messy growth of shrubs, weeds, briars and last year’s vines. But a graceful cape of filmy bluets floats out across the grass around one of the trees on the roadside edge.