Added this gorgeous bird to my life list yesterday at our local State Park! I was so excited. I heard its' call first & right as I was getting ready to leave it flew right in front of me!
Wonderful! Naturally Henry David Thoreau had something to say about this bird:
"August 18, 1858
I sit under the oaks at the east end of Hubbard's Grove -- and hear two wood pewees singing close by. They are perched on dead oak twigs four or five rods apart -- and their notes are so exactly alike that at first I thought there was but one. One appeared to answer the other -- and sometimes they both sung together. Even as if the old were teaching her young. It was not the usual spring note of this bird -- but a simple, clean, pe-e-e-eet rising steadily with one impulse to the end. They were undistinguishable in tone and rhythm -- though one which I thought might be the younger was feebler. In the meanwhile as it was perched on the twig it was incessantly turning its head about looking for insects -- and suddenly would dart aside or downward a rod or two and I could hear its bill snap as it caught one. Then it returned to the same or another perch."
Excerpt from the excellent A Year of Birds: Writings on Birds from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Geoff Wisner and illustrated by Barry Van Dusen.
Added this gorgeous bird to my life list yesterday at our local State Park! I was so excited. I heard its' call first & right as I was getting ready to leave it flew right in front of me!
Wonderful! They can be easy to find in the mid-story of the woods.
I appreciate this bird when I hear its call every year.
Wonderful! Naturally Henry David Thoreau had something to say about this bird:
"August 18, 1858
I sit under the oaks at the east end of Hubbard's Grove -- and hear two wood pewees singing close by. They are perched on dead oak twigs four or five rods apart -- and their notes are so exactly alike that at first I thought there was but one. One appeared to answer the other -- and sometimes they both sung together. Even as if the old were teaching her young. It was not the usual spring note of this bird -- but a simple, clean, pe-e-e-eet rising steadily with one impulse to the end. They were undistinguishable in tone and rhythm -- though one which I thought might be the younger was feebler. In the meanwhile as it was perched on the twig it was incessantly turning its head about looking for insects -- and suddenly would dart aside or downward a rod or two and I could hear its bill snap as it caught one. Then it returned to the same or another perch."
Excerpt from the excellent A Year of Birds: Writings on Birds from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Geoff Wisner and illustrated by Barry Van Dusen.
I love the quotations and poem for this little bird.