Date: 7/4/25 5:42 am From: Ted Levin <tedlevin1966...> Subject: [VTBIRD] 04 July 2025: Hurricane Hill (1,100 feet), WRJ
5:43 a.m. (Half an hour before sunrise). Fifty-four degrees, no mosquitoes,
wind Northwest four miles per hour, gusting to eight. Overhead, clear sky,
light blue grading to pale cantaloupe as the sun climbs above the river fog
and low, hill-hugging clouds. Above the White River, thick fog flows east
... slower than I walk. Then, as the sun elevates, the fog disperses.
Becomes mist, softening the woodland contours and muting the green—an
expanding breath of pastel orange: Tissue-thin and splendid, the
consolation for waking up at 3:45.
*Before the Color*: red-eyed vireo, barely pausing for breath, sings in the
maples as though its tail's on fire. Chickadees and juncos join in (though
*not* nearly as persistently). Then, a blue-headed vireo and a winter wren
cut in, beautifully aloof—neither of whom I've heard in more than a month.
*After the Color:* Thirty-one species, including five warblers (northern
parula, black-throated green, common yellowthroat, ovenbird, and
chestnut-sided). Indigo bunting crooning from the summit of a spruce,
deepest blue (stands out, a dark spec against the pale vestment). Not to be
expected—Baltimore oriole and brown thrasher. Brown creeper and cedar
waxwing, both whispering (one in the air; the other in the woods). Gutteral
ravens, three, in conversation, report the morning's news.
*Department of Entitlement: *Along the side of the road, chipping sparrow
fledglings hop after their caregiver, bumping and nudging, in the
relentless pursuit of food. Less circumspect, four woodpeckers in
training—two sapsuckers and two hairy—chase their respective fathers around
nearby maples. Twitter, twitter, twitter. Dissent of the famished. Reminds
me of dinnertime after a Little League game.
*A Second Go-Around: *Last evening, above the deck, the undulating
performance of a male ruby-throated hummingbird. Like me, a female in
the lilac was mesmerized. From lilac to deck, rising and falling. A
full-bore performance of tight loops by a tiny Casanova. From the
standpoint of energy output, a male hummingbird can afford a summer-long,
full-court display (he may father three broods) and engage in constant
territorial defense of flowers and feeders. He consumes three to seven
calories of food a day, which is two to three times his body weight. And
has no social life other than sperm donation and territorial defense. The
female chooses the nest site. Makes the nest. Incubates. Supervises chicks
and fledglings. And when she's through, she may mate a second time ...
possibly with another male.
