My son, Ryan, was saying yesterday how he was sorry that summer was drawing to a close. I said that we still have plenty of heat left. He said that at the height of the summer, he woke up with the birds and really enjoyed their chirping and singing at sunrise. Now, it is still dark when he has to wake up.
That started me thinking of how much joy the garden sounds give to me also. I am most aware of them when I am outside in the yard or when I can have windows open or partially open when I can use the swamp cooler. The day usually starts off with bird sounds. Our local Gila Woodpecker likes to peck on the top of the light post to wake up the neighborhood. I'm not sure why. This is generally in the spring and early summer, so I think he is letting all the female Gila woodpeckers know that he is around and is the loudest.
There is the whit-wheet, whit- wheet, whit- wheet of the Curved billed thrashers who come to the feeders and the oranges that I leave out.
Adding to the melody is the loud but not very melodious Peach Faced Love Birds. They are very vocal and come to eat the sunflower thistle seeds in the morning and evening. I have sunflowers all summer at various places around my yard so they are happy and sing along somewhat discordantly to my piano playing!
They are acrobats and hang on the smallest side branch of the sunflowers to get the seeds after the flowers have bloomed
The mockingbird is always around to bring up the sun with a song that is forever changing it seems
Not to be seconded in sound quality is the Lesser Goldfinch which loves the sunflower thistle also. They sound like Threeee-chi,chi,chi to me and almost blend into the sunflowers themselves. When I walk outside all the love birds and goldfinches fly off at once filling the sky with greens, pinks, blues and yellows almost like brightly colored butterflys.
The Gambel Quail are more often heard than seen as they run the alleys in our area. However they do grace my yard or roof house upon occasion and I have been able to get some pictures. They sound like kuck, kuck wheeeeee-ouh with a large emphasis on the Wheeeeee
Each Hummingbird has a different call from didididi to rapid jikas to clicks and of course the whirrrrring of their wings. I also love to go outside in back and sit under the trumpet vines and enjoy the hummingbirds swooping and diving overhead as they feed on the trumpet vine flowers
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| This is a female Black Chinned |
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| Anna's Male |
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| Costa's Hummingbird |
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| Hummingbird at trumpet vine flowers |
