Walked to the hawthorns and back this morning. Quickly heard and saw a male
scarlet tanager en route on Honness Lane, and later had two in the same
tree along the recway. On a couple occasions they flew to the trunk of the
tree and perched briefly woodpecker style -- too briefly for photos, alas.
Makes me wonder if they're so desparate for food that they're willing to
resort to woodpecker/nutchatch/creeper strategies. Also plenty of orioles
still easy to see in the leafless trees, and many "meeps" from grosbeaks
who, for some reason, haven't been as easy to see (except the one time in a
totally backlit situation).
Missed a huge photo-op with a Brown Thrasher belting out its double songs
at the top of a tree, which first triggered some catbirds below to
reciprocate -- their quieter jumble song was no match -- and then a tiny
dot flew right up next to the thrasher. Grab binoculars: Cape May Warbler!
Grab camera: warbler departs! That would've been an awesome shot! Well, at
least I got my FOY Cape May, having been jealous of everyone else having
seen them already, it seems.
Hawthorn was still mostly devoid of warblers: a yellow, some yellowthroats,
a black-throated green heard from northeast of the softball field. Still
plenty of wood thrushes making whip sounds. A very cooperative
Chestnut-sided Warbler, who was singing there yesterday with a less
cooperative Canada Warbler that never showed itself and soon disappeared,
was seen again today along the recway (next to the two scarlet tanagers).
Also heard Least Flycatcher che-becks for the first time; I'd been seeing
silent empids for a few days, but this was my first confirmation.
One interesting sound was a series of repeated "mip"s, pattern reminiscent
of a falcon, coming from the hawthorn orchard, just south of the main
crossroad in the north with the big apple tree. I had heard this call once
last year, and a few times this year, but the singer seems allergic to
sound recorders, as it would invariably stop calling once I got my phone
out and set up to record... that is, until today. Anyone know what this is?:
http://suan-yong.com/sound/2020-05-15-hawthorn-mips-3.wav
Suan
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