Spring Equinox – Louisiana Waterthrush and Black-and-white Warbler
Yesterday morning a Louisiana Waterthrush sang from along the creek in the woods, the first time this season I’ve heard its song – right on time, the herald of spring. Three clear, ringing, whistles, followed by a tumble of notes like creek water falling over rocks.
And this morning, our first Black-and-white Warbler of the season sang its high, thin weesa-weesa-weesa in the still bare limbs of the white oaks right outside our bedroom windows. The small, slender warbler, crisply striped in black and white, crept along the branches, searching one side and another, and stopping frequently to raise its head, show a snow-white throat and sing.
In the same tree, two Golden-crowned Kinglets whispered their wintery ti-ti-ti, ti-ti-ti, and an Eastern Phoebe flew to a branch and bobbed its tail.
A pair of Eastern Phoebes have built a nest on top of a gutter pipe over the garage, the same spot where Phoebes nested two years ago, though not last spring.
Both days have been warm and sunny. A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, fresh yellow and black, fluttered low around some shrubs. Several other, smaller butterflies I didn’t know – some orange, some yellow – flew here and there, over grass and weedy flowers.