Bird Data | Broadwinged Hawk Data | Flower Data | Morning Notes | Field Trip Notes
During the summer of 1973, when I was 14 years old, I got up very early on four occasions to write down the order in which different species of birds arose and began singing. I've transcribed those notes here; you can see a scan of one of the originals as well.
Other Morning Notes: July 18, 1973 | August 1, 1973 | August 24, 1973
July 6, 1973
Place: Our property, near lake.
Weather: Quite cool, around 64°F. Good strong breeze. Clear sky.
Time: 4:35 am - 5:50 am
4:40 am: Robin awakes, gives alarm call then sings.
4:45: Many more robins calling; raccoons hunting along shore cry out.
4:46: Wood thrush sings.
4:47: Robins increase greatly, more wood thrushes wake. Bats still fly overhead, bullfrogs not calling frequently anymore, green frogs taking over.
4:48: Wood pewee sings.
4:50: Pewee sings again, bats still flying, robin chorus very loud.
4:53: Song sparrow sings, breeze stops.
4:55: Bats more common
4:58: Breeze only occasional now, raccoons still around lake—if I want to see them I can, getting quite light.
4:59: House wren sings—only about the last half of his usual song.
5:00: Just saw one of the raccoons, he ran right in front of me, about 25 feet away.
5:02: Crow calls, raccoons again call.
5:03: More song sparrows singing.
5:04: Redwing wakes up, alarm call.
5:05: More redwings
5:06: Crow calls again.
5:08: Catbird sings.
5:09: Mourning dove sings, crow keeps calling.
5:11: Several crows fly around, four of them in all, with one in lead.
5:13: Redwing finally sings—they've been giving their alarm notes. Redwing glides down toward lake.
5:15: Raccoon comes out, shakes himself, comes toward me, sniffs and runs back into cover. He just did this before, got up, looked around, spotted me, ran into cover.
5:18: 'Coon comes out for another sniff.
5:19: 'Coon sneaks into different cover, another one does too.
5:20: 'Coons head for woods at a face pace. Baby crow (actually immature) calls. Getting quite light. Robin chorus has stopped, now only redwings, wood thrushes, and song sparrows singing. Also catbirds.
5:24: Chimney swift flies overhead.
5:26: More chimney swifts flying.
5:27: House sparrows calling, redwings flying around.
5:28: Robin calls, doesn't sing.
5:30: Birds all active now, flying around, fighting, looking for food, etc.
5:33: More pewees are singing, adding to general confusion. Chickadees start singing their whistled pee-eeee.
5:36: Two grackles flying north, deadline course.
5:37: Cardinal starts singing.
5:40: Red-bellied woodpecker calls several times.
5:41: Three more grackles flying north.
5:42: Flicker flies away.
5:45: Ovenbird calls from woods.
5:46: One bullfrog sings, one robin sings also, whole bird chorus dies down.
5:48: More grackles flying north, I think there's a big roost to the south of us. More chickadees whistling and calling.
5:50: Sunrise hits top of trees, must go now.
> Next: July 18, 1973