When Students are Away, Catbirds Play

Gray Catbird from front porch. (6/30/14)

Today is the first day of my summer break, and while sitting on the front porch enjoying my coffee and the neighborhood bird song, I was pleased to have this little fellow, a Gray Catbird, stop by. First landing on the wooden fence between our front yard and our neighbors side lot, he flitted a few feet away to survey the neighbor's garden and eventually taking off into the trees with a friend.

Checking out what's good in the raised beds. (6/30/14)

I had seen another Gray Catbird in the backyard a few weeks ago, but failed, at that time, to snap a picture. I suppose they have always been common in our area, though it is only the past month that I had seen them frequently enough to properly identify it. Well known for their distinctive call ("a raspy mew like a cat"), from a distance in shadows they have some features common to grackles, which weaker bird watchers such as myself have surely mistaken them for in the past.

(6/30/14)