This time of year I do much of my birding by ear. So I was delighted to
hear a couple species that had not reported their presence to me lately.

I had not heard either Louisiana waterthrush or cerulean warbler lately
(for about a month), so I was surprised and delighted to hear them as Jane
and I took our almost daily hike this morning around the property, over the
hilltop field and back through the wooded ravines. Both species chimed in
just as we entered the deep wooded hollow at the south end.

Other warblers have been heard regularly: yellow, common yellowthroat,
hooded and ovenbird. I haven't heard the strange-singing blue-winged
lately, but I haven't spent much time in that part of the field either. The
din of the cicadas is waning, and berry-picking around that sector may
reveal that he (they) are still there. As near as I can tell we don't have
chats this year, which is unusual.

We do have all three mimids, plenty of catbirds and mockers, and a thrasher
was calling in doublets from the top of the maple out back yesterday -
always makes me smile.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to go pick wild black raspberries for an hour
or so, since they are just becoming ripe here, and I have to be gone on
business next week when they may be at peak. (It was ever thus.) As I
worked my way along the field edge, a yellow-billed cuckoo with a cicada in
its mouth hopped up on a branch, not 15 feet away, and started chattering
at me. There may have been a nest nearby. I mowed and trimmed the narrow
trail around that portion of the edge about three weeks ago, anticipating
the berry harvest, but I don't walk it regularly. It is now mostly
re-over-grown, but passable enough with a pair of hand-pruners. I regard
encounters with cuckoos along this path to be part of the harvest. Last
year I had a similarly close encounter near to there with a black-billed
(but not in association with cicadas.)

About the only unusual species regularly present this year is red-headed
woodpecker. I hear them often in the wooded hollow just north of the house.
I always see them at our place or in the nearby countryside, five or six
times a year. But this year it is right out my back door, and almost daily.
I suspect they are nesting in one of the snags left from the derecho's
devastation four years ago. But it's like a jungle in that part of the
property, and I haven't cleared any trails there since that storm. Still,
our usual five species of woodpeckers have become six. (All the usual Ohio
species except sapsucker, for those of you keeping score at home...)

Other than that, the summer is presenting the usual sights and delights.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum

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