Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Evening watch

 
I have been on nighthawk patrol every free evening this week. So far I have had little joy in that regard. Last night I had just one, so I am a tad jealous of people seeing 20 or 30 of these pretty birds scooting across a darkening sky. Still, I have no complaints. Standing outside in nice weather, no one else around, just watching the evening approach is its own reward.

The barn swallows have left the mountain, though I saw a few near the neighboring orchard yesterday. The yellow-billed cuckoo still calls from deeper in the forest. The eastern pewees call as well, but they are a late migrant and this is still early in the season. Robins are beginning to leave. Small groups of them move through the trees; often half of these groups are young birds, still spotted, still with yellow lores. I also had two flocks of cedar waxwings, a total of 25 birds. One flock stayed nearly half an hour in the top of a nearby tree, occasionally taking to the air to circle briefly before returning to the tree top again.

Last night a ruby-throated hummingbird zoomed around my shoulder. I wondered what attracted it until I realized it was investigating the red bulbs in my taillights. Hummingbirds are so predictable.

So the season is turning, slowly still, but inevitably. No longer do I ask myself if something I see is a migrant or simply an outlier. The answers are visible in an evening sky.

8 comments:

Scott said...

No nighthawks on Sunday evening here (I looked on purpose), but there was a large flock of waxwings gathered on a tree on Sunday afternoon. Our dogwoods have a very distinct red cast to them--they're among the first to show signs of the changing season.

Carolyn H said...

Funny thing about the waxwings. When I submitted my two flocks to eBird, I got the nasty note saying the species was rare and I had too many individuals. Weird. Everyone knows waxwings come in flocks, and there's nothing rare about finding them now.

LauraHinNJ said...

I look for nighthawks at the baseball game, between innings!

Sharkbytes said...

Wow- I don't want to think it's fall yet.

Carolyn H said...

Shark: The birds know fall is approaching, even if the weather is still summer-ish

Carolyn H said...

Laura: any luck seeing nighthawks at the baseball game?

Scott said...

One of my employees (who lives at the opposite end of my preserve) said that there was a huge gathering of nighthawks over his house on Monday evening this week--the biggest gathering he had ever witnessed. I didn't go out that night because Kali's broken foot keeps me in the house quite a bit, but I did go out on Tuesday evening and there were none to be seen. Damn; I may have missed them this year!

Carolyn H said...

Scott: I hope you didn't miss them. I'm looking forward to having a few free evenings over this holiday weekend, so I can resume my nighthawk patrol.