{"id":333,"date":"2009-08-25T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T01:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2009-08-25T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-26T01:53:00","slug":"eastern-wood-pewee-%e2%80%93-a-late-summer-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Wood-Pewee \u2013 A Late Summer Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

This afternoon an Eastern Wood-Pewee\u2019s soft puh-WEE<\/span> call haunted the edge of the woods around our back yard. It moved from place to place, but I never was able to see the small grayish bird. We have not had a Wood-Pewee around regularly this summer, and I\u2019ve missed them. So at least it\u2019s nice to hear one visiting or passing through, and its shortened, late-summer song reflects a faded, somewhat weary, but still sweet end-of-summer mood.*<\/p>\n

For the most part, birds have become pretty quiet. This morning when I stepped outside, at first all I heard were cicadas, grasshoppers and crickets. The sky was clear blue and the sun already high and warm, but not yet hot. Then a trill from a Carolina Wren at the edge of the woods was answered by some burbling notes from another. A Goldfinch flying over called its rolling ti-TEE-ti-ti.<\/span> A Mourning Dove\u2019s coo echoed through the trees. Several Chipping Sparrows in a grassy area across the street made little high-pitched, ringing calls to each other and flitted from grass to shrub to tree. <\/p>\n

A Cardinal peeped, Chickadees chattered, a Titmouse rasped day-day-day,<\/span> a Red-bellied Woodpecker rattled, a Downy gave a delicate whinny, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher called spee-spee,<\/span> and a Bluebird called in brief little blurry, warbled blurps. Crow, Blue Jay, Eastern Towhee, House Finch . . . most of the vocal birds these days seem to be common, year-round residents, while most of the neotropical migrants \u2013 warblers, vireos, tanagers, flycatchers and others \u2013 have fallen quiet, lurking in woods or shrubs or fields \u2013 or at least they\u2019re not singing. It may be that I\u2019m missing a lot, and just don\u2019t recognize their less familiar and quieter calls as well as their songs. <\/p>\n

Often I do hear a Summer Tanager\u2019s pik-a-tuk<\/span> call, or catch a glimpse of a Scarlet Tanager in deep yellow with black wings. But not today. The Blue Grosbeak that sang for several weeks in the field has fallen silent, and it\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve even heard the whreep<\/span> of a Great-crested Fycatcher, the sharp wheet-sit <\/span>of an Acadian Flycatcher, the steady whistled song of a Red-eyed Vireo or the raucous cawp<\/span> of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. <\/p>\n

But a Red-tailed Hawk screamed overhead, and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird zoomed past me and into some bushes. If anything, the Hummingbirds seem even busier and more active than earlier in the summer. Several come and go all day around the feeder and blooming plants on the back deck. <\/p>\n

*David Sibley describes this song of an Eastern Wood-Pewee as \u201cshort, upslurred (given by migrants).\u201d The Sibley Guide to Birds,<\/span> David Allen Sibley, page 323.*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This afternoon an Eastern Wood-Pewee\u2019s soft puh-WEE call haunted the edge of the woods around our back yard. It moved from place to place, but I never was able to see the small grayish bird. We have not had a Wood-Pewee around regularly this summer, and I\u2019ve missed them. So at least it\u2019s nice to […]<\/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\/333"}],"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=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}