{"id":153,"date":"2008-03-18T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-18T22:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2008-03-18T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-18T22:39:00","slug":"field-pansies-and-other-wildflowers-golden-crowned-kinglets-and-a-black-and-white-warbler%e2%80%99s-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Field Pansies and Other Wildflowers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a Black and White Warbler\u2019s Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning clouds of pale purple Field Pansies (Viola bicolor<\/span>) spread across the rough, ragged edges of the Old Field that runs along the dead-end road just outside our neighborhood. The individual blooms look like frail, miniature violets on tall stems with long, lobe-shaped leaves. They\u2019re an introduced wildflower and probably considered a weed, but in this drab, much-abused spot, they look lovely. <\/p>\n

Bluets, Henbit, Dandelions and several other tiny blue, yellow and white wildflowers also are blooming along the roadsides. Mockingbirds have joined the Brown Thrashers in singing, along with Pine Warblers, Bluebirds, Phoebes, Robins, House Finches, Chickadees, Titmice, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens \u2013 just about all of our year-round resident birds are singing now, I think. <\/p>\n

White-throated Sparrows also are singing, and their plaintive Come-a-way with me<\/span> sounds especially bittersweet at twilight or on a day like today, under a melancholy sky heavy with quiet, layered gray clouds. And today I heard the \u201csqueaky-wheel\u201d song of a Black and White Warbler for the first time this season. Since we\u2019ve been gone so much lately, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve missed a lot, but for me, it\u2019s a first.<\/p>\n

After a winter season in which Golden-crowned Kinglets have been infrequently heard or seen around our house, the past two days I\u2019ve been hearing their high-pitched see-see-see<\/span> calls often in the pines, and today watched one with a bright yellow crown feeding in the limbs of a pine. It\u2019s nice to see and hear them again!<\/p>\n

At least one Red-breasted Nuthatch is still coming to our feeders regularly, possibly two. I haven\u2019t yet been out often enough to be sure.<\/p>\n

And finally, when I returned from a walk just after noon, I stopped to listen for a while to a Chipping Sparrow singing from a perch on the bare branch of a water oak. I watched for several minutes as it sang a high, delicate song that was recognizable, but quite different from its usual monotone trill. Chipping Sparrows are constantly amazing me with the variety of their songs. This song sounded silvery and pretty. It was a rather high, metallic, jingling sound, mostly all on one note, but with subtle variations, and it was quieter than the usual Chipping Sparrow song, not so strong or held so long. At the same time, another Chipping Sparrow on a nearby branch sang back to this one, in the same kind of song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning clouds of pale purple Field Pansies (Viola bicolor) spread across the rough, ragged edges of the Old Field that runs along the dead-end road just outside our neighborhood. The individual blooms look like frail, miniature violets on tall stems with long, lobe-shaped leaves. They\u2019re an introduced wildflower and probably considered a weed, but […]<\/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\/153"}],"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=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}