When I went out for a walk this morning, I didn\u2019t take binoculars with me because I had a busy day ahead and felt pressed for time. The morning was lovely, still slightly cool with a soft blue sky, high cirrus clouds and fading jet trails, though already the sun felt very warm, heating up fast. As I walked, I spent too much of the time lost in thought and plans, not listening fully to birds or appreciating the day around me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
About halfway up a steep hill with a large undeveloped stretch of land on one side, a slender, dark bird with a long tail emerged from a tangle of weedy vegetation at about eye level and brought me back into the moment. A Gray Catbird. Looking almost like a shadow at first, the Catbird quickly became animated and stood on a slender branch of a shrub and looked around, switched its tail expressively. It was so close I could see it well, even without binoculars, and it stayed in view for several moments. Shadowy-gray all over, with a neat black cap and a graceful, light way of moving. I wasn\u2019t quite close enough to see the patch of rusty color beneath its tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gray Catbirds are not common here in our neighborhood, though in some years a pair will nest in an area with enough dense vegetation. This one might be passing through, but I hope it might stay around. I didn\u2019t walk on until it slipped back out of sight in a tangle of vines and shrubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I went out for a walk this morning, I didn\u2019t take binoculars with me because I had a busy day ahead and felt pressed for time. The morning was lovely, still slightly cool with a soft blue sky, high cirrus clouds and fading jet trails, though already the sun felt very warm, heating up […]<\/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\/2447"}],"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=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}