Most early evenings, around 6:00-7:00 pm, we sit for a while on the deck, in the shade of the oaks, enjoying the end of the day. In truth, there\u2019s still a lot more day to come \u2013 the sun doesn\u2019t go down until about 8:45 right now, and even after it does, the orange light of the long summer twilight lingers until 9:30 or later, with fireflies flashing and bats flying.<\/p>\n
But earlier in the evening, well before sunset, seems to be a busy time for birds. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird male and female come to the feeder hanging from the deck (as they do all day long \u2013 the male coming much more often than the female). And a moat of water in the middle of the feeder, meant to keep ants away, is a popular watering hole for lots of small birds.<\/p>\n
Near the feeder, we also keep a shallow clay saucer filled with water on the corner of the deck rail under a hanging fern. At this time of day Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, American Goldfinch and Eastern Bluebirds come to drink and to bathe, and sometimes an Eastern Phoebe. It\u2019s a sweet and peaceful feeling to sit quietly nearby while they come, chattering, fluttering their wings and splashing \u2013 then retreating to the branches of the oaks to preen and dry off. A pair of American Goldfinches that usually arrive together are especially fun to watch, the male bright lemon-yellow and black, the female more subdued.<\/p>\n
A Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Carolina Wrens often are in trees around the edge of the back yard, too, with a Red-eyed Vireo singing in the woods, or sometimes making its whining nyanh<\/em> calls. Most evenings we hear at least one or two echoing calls from a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, sometimes fairly nearby. Once we caught just a glimpse of it as it flew across the back yard from tree to tree, a fairly good-size, brownish bird with a flash of white and a very long tail. We did not see its markings well \u2013 not even the long spotted tail \u2013 but only a few seconds after it flew by, it gave a good, long, loud ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-cawwp-cawp-cawp<\/em> call.<\/p>\n This evening, as three or four Titmice, a Chickadee and a Goldfinch pair all were debating in chirps and chips whether or not it was safe to come for water with us sitting so nearby \u2013 as they always seem to do for several minutes before they finally do \u2013 a pair of Brown-headed Nuthatches suddenly flew in together, making their soft, low, short calls to each other as they paused briefly in the branches of the oak, then came immediately down to the hummingbird feeder, and took turns hanging upside down to drink from the moat. When both had taken several sips, they flew away to a large pine that stands at the corner of the back yard, where they stayed for several minutes more.<\/p>\n The Nuthatches don\u2019t come as often as the other birds, but when they do, they don\u2019t waste time sitting around, fidgeting and pondering whether to come or not. They just come directly to the feeder, drink, and fly away again, quite boldly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most early evenings, around 6:00-7:00 pm, we sit for a while on the deck, in the shade of the oaks, enjoying the end of the day. In truth, there\u2019s still a lot more day to come \u2013 the sun doesn\u2019t go down until about 8:45 right now, and even after it does, the orange light […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1348,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}