Cedar Waxwings and Summer Tanagers

The cedar waxwings will be leaving for their nesting grounds any day. They finished stripping the holly tree by the horse pasture in about 3 days, and have been feeding at the edge of the woods, presumably on tulip tree flowers. They are so striking with their sleek yellow and fawn feathers and their black masks that look like a bold streak of paint.

They like to hang out in the blackgum trees, always very late
to leaf out, in between eating berries. You can hear their calls here.

I wonder if any of these birds will nest in the mountains of our state. Their breeding range extends from the NC mountains up to much of Canada.

The Red-Shouldered Hawks have chosen a conspicuous spot to nest this year: a pine tree just at the edge of the woods, equidistant between the old and current house sites. I noticed the hawks making a bunch of racket nearby, saw what looked like a raptor's nest and thought "No. Right there?" Sure enough, that's their nest. They're probably incubating the eggs right now.

Summer in central NC wouldn't be summer without the songs of summer tanagers and blue grosbeaks. We used to have both scarlet and summer tanagers but I haven't heard or seen a scarlet for 5 or 6 years now. A summer tanager still patrols his territory that includes the old house site. I got a couple of pictures of him as he flew from tree to tree and sang. They don't seem to fear people much. This one seemed to be thinking "sure, you can take my picture". For 3-4 years there was a Summer Tanager who hung out by the horse shelters a lot and was so tame I wondered if he was hand-raised. I almost expected him to land on my shoulder. The way he fluttered about so close made me think of the cartoon birds in the old Disney movies, and made it seem as though we were on the verge of switching over into some alternate enchanted reality.

Once the resident indigo buntings arrive the summer song repertoire will be complete. Indigo buntings love the heat and sing out in the open no matter how sunny and hot the weather.

You can hear the song and call of summer tanagers here. The ones on our farm sound more "southern"; the tempo of their song is slower. They're a little bit hoarser too, although overall they sound more musical. You can hear the indigo bunting here. They sound much like goldfinches except they sing in paired syllables rather than long strings of similar notes.