After traveling for much of the month of February, only back home for a day or two here and there, I\u2019ve felt out of touch with what\u2019s going on here at home. This morning was a perfect time to spend a while outside catching up \u2013 a calm, clear, spring-like day with a cloudless blue sky \u2013 and lots of birds singing.<\/p>\n
The earliest singer was a Cardinal perched in the top of a bare pecan tree, sounding as bright and colorful as the bird itself. Then came the swishing song of a Phoebe sitting on the edge of the back deck, the To-wheee<\/span> of a Towhee from under the holly bushes, the trilled song of a Pine Warbler on the edge of the woods, and the songs of Titmouse, Chickadee, House Finch, Carolina Wren, Brown Thrasher and Bluebird. <\/p>\n Our large, visiting flock of Red-winged Blackbirds were somewhere near, and their rattles and creaks and conkarees<\/span> formed a kind of background music. A Red-bellied Woodpecker called its springtime churrrr<\/span>, a Downy Woodpecker called pink!<\/span> and flew to one of the feeders, and I even heard the kingfisher-like rattle of a Hairy Woodpecker as it flew over toward the line of woods across the street. Mourning Doves cooed in the distance. Yellow-rumped Warblers darted here and there, chasing each other, flashing silver-gray wings and yellow rumps, and calling repeated cheks!<\/span> A Chipping Sparrow and a female House Finch flew into the Savannah holly near one of the bird baths \u2013 and flew away when they saw me sitting too near. A Turkey Vulture floated low overhead. <\/p>\n Goldfinches crowded and fluttered and hunched on the perches of the finch feeder, stuffing themselves. A Mockingbird lurked in the branches of the wax myrtles, White-throated Sparrows called tseet<\/span>, kicked up dry leaves, and fed on the edge of the grass, and I heard the low, honking call of a White-breasted Nuthatch. After a while, all three nuthatches, one at a time \u2013 White-breasted, Red-breasted and Brown-headed made an appearance at the front-yard feeders, and I was happy to see that they\u2019re still around. A Pine Warbler also is a regular visitor to the feeders, and at least two Pine Warblers sing often around the house all day long.<\/p>\n It was especially nice to see a female Bluebird perching in a low, bare branch not far from the bluebird house. Although there are many Bluebirds in the neighborhood, this winter we haven\u2019t seen them often in our yard \u2013 so I\u2019m hoping this is a good sign. <\/p>\n Early this afternoon, dozens of Robins milled over the floor of the woods behind our house, making the brown leaf-litter look alive. A pair of Hairy Woodpeckers \u2013 their crisp black and white plumage standing out sharply against the murky gray-brown background \u2013 worked on some of the standing dead pines. And a small flock of about three dozen Rusty Blackbirds perched among the green pinetops. At one point, many of them together made a rippling, burbling noise of calls, a chorus of rolling prrrts<\/span> and churrrrs<\/span> that was enchanting to hear.<\/p>\n Several solitary male Rusty Blackbirds left the group to feed on the grass or in low branches, and I watched one whose plumage, somewhere between winter and summer colors, was a stunning mix of copper-brown stippling on the back and head and throat, and glossy blue-black wings and tail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After traveling for much of the month of February, only back home for a day or two here and there, I\u2019ve felt out of touch with what\u2019s going on here at home. This morning was a perfect time to spend a while outside catching up \u2013 a calm, clear, spring-like day with a cloudless blue […]<\/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\/149"}],"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=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}