I regularly see a group of cardinals, about 5, taking turns flying to the different feeders placed throughout the gardens. Three of them are males woh were born this spring and who had been wearing their "punk" outfits until recently. Now they are sporting their red coats, which are growing brighter every day.
I saw a hummingbird yesterday. I want to look for and record it each day. There were a few days when I didn't see them. As soon as I changed the sugar water in their feeders, they were back! The weather had gotten cooler at that time so I thought maybe they were on their way south. I expect them to be gone any day now. Or can I expect to see more hummingbirds for a while as the ones who were north of here begin to head south? An incentive to keep up with the feeders!
Also for the past week I have heard some new bird calls, but have not seen who they belong to. One bird may have been the catbird, though I did see what looked like a phoebe on the wire in the area the song was coming from. I remember in the spring hearing the catbirds singing a lovely song, very unlike their usual screechy cat alert call. I've also heard what Bob calls the "clothesline" bird. It was alternating its call with the blue jays, so maybe this is an alternate call/song of theirs. And there was a third call that I cannot describe, but was new as well. I will go through the different bird calls on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.
It is to to refer to the Sally Roth book, Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season, to see what is in store for the autumn season. I bought the book last January and have learned a lot from it so far. Autumn is the last section in the book still to read.
Birds Seen Today as of 10 a.m
Hummingbird
Cardinals
Blue jay (hear)
downy woodpecker
catbird
mourning dove - flying
chickadee
wrens (hear)
Weather: humid, overcast, thunder and lightning in the distance.
