August 4 Bird Language Sit

Post date: Aug 12, 2019 5:30:9 PM

On August 4, we had a delightful Bird Language sit at the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge. The sun was out and the temperature was comfortable. As we settled in we may have triggered a couple of alarms from house wrens. Early in the sit a couple northern cardinals made their way through the area from east to west with some song and contact calls. During the second period, there was a cascade of sounds and alarms that started in the west and traveled northeast across the sit area. A red-tailed hawk was chasing a blackbird from the west during the third period which evoked some mild agitation in the woods by a couple birds. During the final period the northern part of the sit area got quiet and tense, something we observed in other sits during the summer. We have hypothesized that there could be fledging sharp-shinned hawks in the area that are putting songbirds on edge. However, on this sit we didn't see one.