Late this morning birds were so active that I counted 16 species even before leaving our own front yard for a walk. It was a warm, sunny day with fall colors all around. The first highlight was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flying from tree to tree and testing the trunks and large branches \u2013 in pecan trees, not the oaks. It was the first I\u2019ve seen here this season, a juvenile, with all its markings muted, brownish with blurred white barring on the back, and a thick white stripe down the wing, and no red showing in crown or throat.<\/p>\n
Others birds in the yard included several Mourning Doves under the feeder, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, an Eastern Phoebe calling tsup,<\/em> Blue Jay, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet singing again, in the wax myrtles, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, several Yellow-rumped Warblers flying in and out of the river birches, Eastern Towhee, and Northern Cardinal.<\/p>\n In another part of the neighborhood, several minutes later, two White-throated Sparrows were foraging in rough weedy grass and scrubby privet along the side of the road. For several days I\u2019ve been hearing the tsseeet<\/em> calls of White-throated Sparrows, but this is the first time I\u2019ve seen them this season. These two were quiet, and appeared to be juveniles, their colors and markings less crisp and well-defined than an adult \u2013 plump brown-streaked sparrows, with striped crown and an indistinct white throat \u2013 but they weren\u2019t skittish, and let me get quite close and watch them for several minutes. Further up the road, a few high, sweet, whistled notes rose from the tall grass and shrubs of a meadow-like yard, a partial song from another White-throated Sparrow. It\u2019s good to have them back.<\/p>\n An even greater surprise was a Great Blue Heron that flew up from the old field along the highway and out across the power cut. I see one here occasionally, though not often, usually flying over.<\/p>\n A Hairy Woodpecker gave several sharp, emphatic peenk<\/em> calls in the woods. Several Turkey Vultures and one Red-shouldered Hawk soared; a Pileated Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch and three or four Northern Flickers called; a House Finch sang, and two Chipping Sparrows flew up into low branches from a grassy yard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Late this morning birds were so active that I counted 16 species even before leaving our own front yard for a walk. It was a warm, sunny day with fall colors all around. The first highlight was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flying from tree to tree and testing the trunks and large branches \u2013 in pecan […]<\/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\/1478"}],"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=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1480,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions\/1480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}