Screech-owls, warblers and a butterfly

At c. 4 am this morning, there were calling Eastern Screech-Owls right outside our bedroom window. From the sounds, I would say that these were young birds accompanied by at least one adult. We heard Great Horned Owls duetting earlier this summer but these were the first Screech-Owls.

Today's Dave Taft column, "NYC Nature", features the Common Yellowthroat, about which he says that it may be "the most beautiful bird no one knows". There was a time when I didn't know it either. I can remember hearing one many years ago and misidentifying it. Although the classic call of this bird is a three-syllabed "witchity-witchity-witch", this  one sang a two-syllable "weechie-weechie-weechie". Aha, I thought, "teach-er, teach-er, teach-er"; it's an Ovenbird. But when I finally got a good look at the bird, I was startled to see an exotic-looking creature with a black mask -- nothing like an Ovenbird. Common Yellowthroats (sometimes two pairs) have raised young on our marsh edge every year since and it is indeed the most common warbler hereabouts.

We do see and hear other warblers. This morning's catch-of-the-day included Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart (first-year female) and two or three tail-wagging Prairie Warblers -- first of the season for this handsome bright yellow bird with side streaking.

As I came back from my morning walk, there was a Hairstreak sitting on the front deck of the house basking in the sun with closed wings. The Hairstreaks are a group of small butterflies; this one had a very noticeable zig-zag red band going all the way up the underside of its fore- and hindwings, making it almost certainly the Red-banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops, a southern species which was long considered only a stray to the north (but may be colonizing our area).

Eric Salzman