Local birding report

By mid-to-late June the lisping cries from flocks of Cedar Waxwings have begun to wane across the upper canopies of our woodlands and our summer resident songbirds are getting down to business.

Across town breeding season is in full swing and if you listened carefully the nasal begging calls of fledglings seemed everywhere. While a female catbird is confined to the nest by the duties of incubation, the male, delighted as can be, pours his soul into song both by day and night. The Eastern Phoebes that nest in the eaves above our front door every year did not make a go at it this spring. Two separate pairs of Bluebirds nesting in woodpecker cavities along the side of our house both have noisy broods though.

One late afternoon I heard an unfamiliar sound that I tracked to a nearby pricker bush thicket. Standing quietly for a couple minutes I could not locate the source of the sound. My brain raced with possibilities, was this a rare bird that I have never heard before or an abnormal vocalization from a common bird like a Tufted Titmouse? The mystery sound had an emphatic repeating sharpness to it. When the flutelike carol of a Baltimore Oriole sounded off just overhead, I suddenly had a strong hunch.

Scanning the tree limbs overhead I spotted a bag-shaped hanging nest of a Baltimore Oriole. This was the first of two Baltimore Oriole nests I have found in our yard this spring! Calls of fledgling birds are often a source of confusion this time of year and although I may have heard this sound before I surely had forgotten.

During the first week of June within the dark forest interior of Robinson Woods I was treated to a dusk chorus of Ovenbirds performing flight songs along with Eastern Wood Peewees and Squawking Great-crested Flycatchers. As I walked deeper into the woods the enchanting tunes of Veerys and Hermit Thrushes intermingled with the flamboyant outbursts of a Winter Wren.

Also singing were Black-throated Green Warblers, Redstarts and Northern Parulas. A single Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager also joined the ensemble. The Wood Thrush’s scientific name is Hylocichla mustelina, meaning “weasel-colored woodland thrush” and refers to the bird’s rich, brownish red head, back wings and tail. I later found this woodland minstrel in a White Ash Tree uttering his lush, flute-like ee-oh-lay hymns. Male Scarlet Tanagers sing a song that is like that of an American Robin, albeit it sounds more rushed.

Recently the energetic chick-burr calls from Scarlet Tanagers. Both male and female Scarlet Tanagers make this distinctive call. Catching a glimpse of this striking bird in dense foliage is a test of patience. Henry David Thoreau wrote in his 1853 Journal “that contrast of a red bird with the green pines and blue sky! Even when I have heard the note and look for him and find the bloody fellow, sitting on a dead twig of a pine, I am always startled. That incredible red, with the green and blue, as if these were the trinity we wanted. Yet with his hoarse note he pays for his color. I am transported: these are not the woods I ordinarily walk in. How he enhances the wildness and wealth of the woods!”

A few additional notes from the yard and field include on June 6 along the Spurwink River I spotted two Willets and a Short-billed Dowitcher probing the mudflats and I heard the wheezy hissing p-tsssssshhhuk of several Nelson’s Sparrows somewhere out in the marsh.

On June 7 I flushed a Green Heron hunting along the Pond Cove Brook corridor while listening to the rollicking song of a Warbling Vireo. On June 8 within Winnick Woods my son and I listened to an Alder Flycatcher singing its distinctive “free-beer” sing a ling.

Also, on June 9 a pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks also stopped into my yard. While the female cautiously dined at the seed feeder the watchful male whistled his sweet song from a nearby oak tree branch. Within bushy borders of Gull Crest’s woodlands I heard a Swainson’s Thrush calling. This thrush has a thin, high-pitched, single note whine. They also make a bink like water dropping onto a hard surface. Interestingly, the Swainson’s Thrush may have a one point bred in Cumberland County; however, it is no longer known to.