Date: 6/5/25 5:16 am From: Ted Levin <tedlevin1966...> Subject: [VTBIRD] 05 June 2025: Hurricane Hill (1,100 feet), WRJ
4:47 a.m. (twenty-two minutes before sunrise). Fifty-nine degrees, wind
South two miles per hour, gusting to four (not enough to hold down
mosquitoes, which are everywhere and annoying). Clear but hazy sky, end to
end. Soft peach sunrise, colors enhanced and prolonged by Canadian wildfire
smoke. The sun itself, a bright orange orb, holds color well into the sky.
Though far from as intense, I am reminded of Los Angeles, circa 1965, when
the air was dull brown, a mix of car exhaust and industrial chemicals,
smelled like burnt toast, and often obscured the Coast Range from
backyard North Hollywood. No smell of smoke this morning, no hills
obscured, but there's a profound visual effect on the landscape as
if looking at the world through gauze.
Starflower and false Solomon's seal in bloom. Red columbine, still in
flower. The meadow flowers begin to light up—bees have more to work with.
*Morning total*: twenty-seven species (some noisier than others).
Awoke to chatty eastern phoebes, not the American robins, sobered by smoke
or family matters. Hermit thrush and veery pull their weight, voices
emerging from behind the green veil. Great crested flycatchers. Blackburian
warblers, song subtle as the breeze. Ovenbird screams. Tufted titmouse,
clipped version *pet-ter, pet-ter*; now *here, here, here* as though
calling a meeting order*.*
Both nuthatches. Chestnut-sided and yellow warblers. Brown-headed cowbird
and red-winged blackbird.
Both neighborhood vireos, red-eyed and blue-headed, sing from either side
of the road—motor-mouth red-eyed releases four phrases for every one
blue-headed. Eventually, blue-headed stops. Red-eyed doesn't know when to
quit. Can't quit. Compelled to sing, sunrise to sunset, fifteen to twenty
thousand repetitions a day. Even the sun grows weary.
Raven heads east, through the smoky haze, croaks. Deer bounds cross the
road, into the heart of a tick infestation.
*Early Summer Proclamations: *gray treefrog calls among the aspen leaves.
Green frog, the edge of the pond.
*Ensemble of Trillers*: chipping sparrow, dark-eyed junco, pine warbler.
*Department of Pianissos: *cedar waxwing, Blackburnian warbler, and brown
creeper.
*Department of Fortissimos: *northern house wren, American crow, blue jay,
and ovenbird.
Chickadee in lilac, quietly whistling, as though auditioning for next
spring.
Barred owls have been silent for more than a month. Nest box up and empty.
I have five weeks to find them before my grandkids arrive ... and request
an owl.
