Hairy Woodpecker Pair

A male Hairy Woodpecker flew to a spot high up on a tall dead pine calling as it arrived in an long, unusual string of loud wicka-chew sort of notes that sounded agitated or excited. Then it flew with loud peenk! calls to the lowest part of another pine trunk, where it met a female Hairy Woodpecker, and both immediately began tapping industriously on the trunk and stayed there working for several minutes.

A male and female Bluebird hunted from low branches in the back yard, and juveniles made zee-zee begging sounds somewhere among the leaves where I couldn’t see them, except for one that flew down to the grass and began pecking around and feeding itself. Meanwhile, a Phoebe called tsup-tsup as it perched on branches and swept out or down to the grass for insects.

Suddenly, a pugnacious little Carolina Wren flew to the top of a plant-hanger on the deck and sang very loudly and richly, continuing to sing as it made its way over each of the tomato cages on the plants in pots, then to the deck rail, to another plant-hanger, and finally into a hanging fern at the corner of the deck, where it scrabbled around deep in the greenery for several minutes. The female wren came along quietly a few minutes behind him, carrying small twigs in her bill and following his general path across the deck, but instead of going into the fern, she flew to the branches of nearby bushes, and the male followed her.

A warm-red male Summer Tanager made its way, quiet and leisurely, through the oaks and pines, not calling, not singing, stopping here and there to preen and wipe its bill.