Two Gray Catbirds

A few sleepy orange and sulphur butterflies fluttered over a very parched and struggling field of weeds. Goldenrod bloomed yellow on the tops of withered brown and black stems, and tall red-top grasses and a few foxtails waved along the roadside, but the whole field mostly looked tired and bedraggled and dry. A few white, purple and pink morning glories tumbled over a ditch very rough with weeds, and among them twisted a vine of tiny red-orange morning glories. A Mockingbird sat on a wire, and a couple of Brown Thrashers called out sharp tchacks.

I was a little surprised to see a flash of slate gray in a privet bush – and first one, then two Gray Catbirds came out on the edge of the branches, close enough to see the neat black caps and the orange under the twitching tails.

Two Red-tailed Hawks circled and soared overhead, screaming their hoarse cries in a very deep-blue sunny, cloudless sky.

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