{"id":1579,"date":"2013-02-21T20:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T01:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2013-03-22T09:02:23","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T14:02:23","slug":"red-winged-blackbirds-golden-crowned-kinglet-red-shouldered-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=1579","title":{"rendered":"Red-winged Blackbirds, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-shouldered Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a spring-like morning in late February, cool and clear, with a deep-blue sky, not a cloud in sight, a Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren and Pine Warbler all were singing. A Mourning Dove cooed. A big, boldly colorful Eastern Towhee perched in the pale brown branches of a crape myrtle and called chur-wheee<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The wintery mews of American Goldfinches and zhreeee<\/em> calls of Pine Siskins filled trees in the background, and American Robins were scattered everywhere, especially in large grassy yards. Red-bellied Woodpeckers rattled and called quuurrr,<\/em> and Downy Woodpeckers whinnied, and one woodpecker somewhere drummed a loud roll.<\/p>\n

A tiny Golden-crowned Kinglet called a whispery, high ti-ti-ti<\/em> as it flitted around in some oaks, hard to see, but after watching it for several frustrating minutes, trying to follow as it moved so quickly and constantly \u2013 almost like trying to watch a flying gnat \u2013 I finally caught a glimpse of black and white stripes on the face \u2013 and a tart orange crown.<\/p>\n

Carolina Wrens and House Finches sang, and as I walked up a hill in a wooded part of the neighborhood, I began to hear the conkaree<\/em> calls of Red-winged Blackbirds. The flocks of Common Grackles and Rusty Blackbirds that were common here in December and very early January haven\u2019t been around for quite a while now. The flocks were never as large as in previous winters, and they now seem to be gone. But there\u2019s a relatively small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds around most days, maybe 200-300 birds at most, and usually only two or three dozen. This morning I found only a few feeding in the grass in one of their favorite yards with European Starlings and Robins, and a few more Red-wings up in the trees.<\/p>\n

A Brown Thrasher sat in the top of a tree and sang a full, fluid song; a Ruby-crowned Kinglet stuttered its jidit-jidit<\/em> calls from a hedge of hollies. One Black Vulture soared over, and a Red-tailed Hawk sat on top of a utility pole overlooking the highway beyond the old field.<\/p>\n

Along the roadsides and in yards, yellow dandelions, purple henbit and bluets are in bloom; the dandelions dotting expanses of brown grass; the frail little bluets all but invisible unless you look for them; the henbit spreading in big dark purple patches, with Yellow-rumped Warblers and Chipping Sparrows almost disappearing as they forage among the faded grass and weedy flowers.<\/p>\n

As I walked down a hill with lots of trees on both sides, the kee-yer<\/em> calls of a Red-shouldered Hawk pierced the mostly quiet morning, and after a few moments, I could see it flying low just beyond a line of trees. Then it flew into sight, still calling, and perched in a very tall, bare-limbed sweet gum, out in full view. It sat with its back to me and its head turned in profile, and called over and over, a little different from its usual cry, though only slightly \u2013 almost one syllable instead of two \u2013 Kyeer! Kyeer! <\/em>The colors and patterns of its plumage were vivid in the sunlight, the black back checkered with white and mixed with dark brown, the warm red shoulders and ruddy-red breast just barely visible from behind. When it flew, the tail fanned out, showing the bands of black and white.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a spring-like morning in late February, cool and clear, with a deep-blue sky, not a cloud in sight, a Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren and Pine Warbler all were singing. A Mourning Dove cooed. A big, boldly colorful Eastern Towhee perched in the pale brown branches of a crape myrtle and […]<\/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\/1579"}],"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=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}