This morning \u2013 another in a string of pleasantly cool early mornings, with blue sky and rumpled white clouds \u2013 a Mockingbird was singing from its usual perch on a wire overlooking the old field. Most of the Mockingbirds in the neighborhood have fallen quiet now, but this one still sings enthusiastically \u2013 including the sounds of red-tailed hawk, blue grosbeak, wood thrush, white-eyed vireo and bluebird, as well as others. Two Mourning Doves sat on a wire. A Blue Grosbeak was singing from the far north end of the field, and one silent Red-tailed Hawk sat on a pole overlooking the highway.<\/p>\n
I heard the chick-a-perioo-chick<\/span> of a White-eyed Vireo, as often, and just happened to catch a glimpse of it flying out to catch an insect on the edge of a thick growth of trees and vines. It was too far away to see well \u2013 not much more than a little gray bird \u2013 but it was singing as it moved. <\/p>\n Then I heard a hoarse chet-chet-chet-chet <\/span>for the first time this summer \u2013 and again was just lucky to see a flash of bright yellow-gold \u2013 a Yellow-breasted Chat. It was closer than the Vireo, moving around on the outside of a thicket, so I could also see the pure-white belly and white spectacles. <\/p>\n Because there seemed to be an unusual amount of activity in the field, I watched for a few minutes, and found a quiet Gray Catbird lurking in the weeds and vines \u2013 for the first time this summer. <\/p>\n Both a male and a female Blue Grosbeak flew from shrub to shrub at the edge of the power cut, calling bright chink!<\/span> notes. Two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers flashed silver as they flitted in and out of bushes.<\/p>\n An Eastern Towhee was singing its tink-tink-tink<\/span> song again, both from the field and from a perch on the wire, toward the southern end of the field. He didn\u2019t seem disturbed by my standing right below him to listen. The song begins with a trilled, downward chee-ur,<\/span> then a sharp, quick tink-tink-tink. <\/span><\/p>\n Seeing the Yellow-breasted Chat and the Gray Catbird \u2013 both of which I had not seen or heard this season until today \u2013 makes me think these birds are not just suddenly here. I think I\u2019ve just been distracted and not observant enough to see or hear them recently. Too much lost in thought and not paying enough attention to what\u2019s around me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This morning \u2013 another in a string of pleasantly cool early mornings, with blue sky and rumpled white clouds \u2013 a Mockingbird was singing from its usual perch on a wire overlooking the old field. Most of the Mockingbirds in the neighborhood have fallen quiet now, but this one still sings enthusiastically \u2013 including the […]<\/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\/318"}],"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=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}