Friday, July 13, 2012

Odds and ends


Bird song was much in evidence this morning for some reason. Is it that the morning was overcast and hazy? Is it that sunrise already creeps up minutes later than just a few weeks ago? No matter.
This morning the distant call of a yellow-billed cuckoo from somewhere over on the other side of the mountain was enough to keep my ears perked up during my morning walk with Dog. I’ve never seen the cuckoo on Roundtop but it’s not hard to know when one is around. It is very persistent and calls over and over again, often moving around between calls so that each is in a slightly different spot.

The more common of the summer residents were all out this morning, too. I expect to hear a pewee and a phoebe each morning. Ditto the Carolina wren and the squabbling blue jays. Also this morning I heard both wood thrush and ovenbird. Both had been quiet for some weeks during nesting duties. Does the new round of calling mean nesting is over, that the birds are in between multiple nestings or did the first nest fail? Even the hummingbird put in an early morning appearance.

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And from the "it never fails (and I’m convinced it’s a conspiracy) department: Just when a class X1.4 solar flare is released, prompting a good possibility of aurora borealis displays this far south, the forecast for the weekend is for cloudy skies. Really, overcast skies and a high probability of auroras must go together. I can’t even tell you the last time I had clear skies when the aurora probably was high.

2 comments:

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

The only thing that's persistent here this early morning is the fall of raindrops. A good many nests have failed, especially water birds that have been flooded out.

Carolyn H said...

John: Your side of the pond must be getting all of "our" rain. I did have a bit over the weekend, but not nearly enough.