Missing Summertime
I enjoy watching birds—flying, perching, singing, eating. They are among Nature’s most beautiful creatures; some drably nondescript, some brilliantly gaudy.
We’ll talk about drab and nondescript some other time—let’s talk about some of the gaudy ones now. Here on Cape Cod, we have our share of eye-catching birds: bright red cardinals, crass and raucous blue jays, glossy black crows, the iridescent green and flashing ruby of the hummingbirds. While these are all common sights in our back yard, there are two others that we also watch particularly for, and that we miss when they’re gone.
The Baltimore Oriole, that king of brightly colored birds, is a regular visitor to our back yard in the summer. By late April, the oriole feeder is out and we await the arrival of royalty. It starts early on a spring morning, with the clear, almost piercing notes, “Peter, Peter! Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!†Once we hear that, we know they’re here, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re all over the feeder, that breath-taking orange color giving the actual oranges a run for their money. If you don’t have an oriole feeder set up come springtime, you’re missing an amazing experience.
Our other gaudy favorite is the humble house finch. Small, stocky, and mostly sparrowishly drab, the house finch has a gorgeous red hood that extends from his crown all the way down under his chin and onto his chest. We always notice that flash of red as he flies through the yard. His song, too, is memorable, being an ongoing conversational chirp.
Observing these two birds gives us a great deal of pleasure. Imagine how pleased we were one day when they both showed up together and posed together on the main feeder. If only all the other birds were so well-behaved!
See you by the feeder,
Alan
We’ll talk about drab and nondescript some other time—let’s talk about some of the gaudy ones now. Here on Cape Cod, we have our share of eye-catching birds: bright red cardinals, crass and raucous blue jays, glossy black crows, the iridescent green and flashing ruby of the hummingbirds. While these are all common sights in our back yard, there are two others that we also watch particularly for, and that we miss when they’re gone.
The Baltimore Oriole, that king of brightly colored birds, is a regular visitor to our back yard in the summer. By late April, the oriole feeder is out and we await the arrival of royalty. It starts early on a spring morning, with the clear, almost piercing notes, “Peter, Peter! Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!†Once we hear that, we know they’re here, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re all over the feeder, that breath-taking orange color giving the actual oranges a run for their money. If you don’t have an oriole feeder set up come springtime, you’re missing an amazing experience.
Our other gaudy favorite is the humble house finch. Small, stocky, and mostly sparrowishly drab, the house finch has a gorgeous red hood that extends from his crown all the way down under his chin and onto his chest. We always notice that flash of red as he flies through the yard. His song, too, is memorable, being an ongoing conversational chirp.
Observing these two birds gives us a great deal of pleasure. Imagine how pleased we were one day when they both showed up together and posed together on the main feeder. If only all the other birds were so well-behaved!
See you by the feeder,
Alan
