3 July 2013. Not expecting too much of what you’d call spine tingling, given the slowing of avian activity these days, I went looking for the Acadian Flycatcher we’d found a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice enough walk in the woods, I could hear Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos singing above me, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo called for a moment before flying swiftly away through the canopy layer and a Great-horned Owl, by just being there, greatly excited a female Scarlet Tanager, she hopping around calling ‘Chkk–burr’ repeatedly.
I managed to hear the Acadian Flycatcher in roughly the same place we’d found it last time. I imagine if you were to visit areas where Acadian Flycatchers are abundant you might become quite deaf to its explosive call, which they say, is a loud, sharp ‘Piz-ZA’, but as I listened to it I felt it had a slightly more liquid feel. I wrote it down “Fleet-IT”, still loud and sharp like the squeaky screeches of a chipmunk.
On my way out I encountered a noisy Common Yellowthroat. With a bit of urging it popped out to see me and I managed to get this shot just as it dropped out of sight again. (But to make life simpler, I’ve added another of the same species to fill in the missing bits). I’m sure they know exactly where I am even though to all intents and purposes, they’re invisible; they have a real talent for staying just out of sight even though clearly audible.
Despite a decent tally of 30 or so species seen or heard, including: Red-bellied Woodpecker, Indigo Bunting and Gray Catbird, my Bird of the Day was the Common Yellowthroat for tantalizing me with its brief appearance.