In spring, songbirds serenaded us with sweet song each morning in the “dawn chorus.” In summer, the monotonous droning of cicadas and katydids day and night gave us that season’s iconic sounds.
But with the onset of cooler, shorter days, most songbirds have stopped singing, and the insects have ceased their incessant buzzing. Now, we have the sounds of autumn — the hooting, cawing and squawking that I most associate with the season.
First, the hooting season is starting among Georgia’s two biggest owl species — barred and great horned. Their hooting will only intensify over the next several weeks as they mark territories and attract mates in preparation for nesting, which begins in mid-December for the great horned owl and mid-January for the barred owl.
At night now, you might hear the great horned’s haunting, muffled “hoo-hoo-hooo hoo-hoo” resonating from the woods or through neighborhoods. Barred owls announce themselves with their deep “who cooks for you” hoots — but probably not in the same territory with the great horned, whom they fear.
At sunrise, another familiar sound of autumn may greet us — the hoarse cawing of a murder of crows. Crow cawing is a comfortable sound I most identify with in fall and winter. The crows may be no louder than they were during summer, but they seem more noticeable now, perhaps because of lack of competition from the songbirds. (A few songbirds might sing snatches of song in the fall, including mockingbirds, Carolina wrens and chickadees.)
Then, there are the squawkers — the blue jays. Nearly every time I take a walk amongst the rustling leaves in my neighborhood or in the woods in early fall, I hear the squawking jays. To me, squawking blue jays are as much a part of fall as changing leaf colors and Halloween. No one knows for sure why they are so noisy in autumn, but, with their nesting season over, they may simply like being boisterous.
IN THE SKY: A partial solar eclipse covering 52% of the sun will be visible over Georgia beginning at 11:43 a.m. Saturday. Maximum eclipse is at 1:12 p.m.; it will end at 2:45 p.m. Caution: Never look directly at the sun without proper eye protection filters.
The moon is new Saturday. Venus rises out of the east a few hours before sunrise. Jupiter and Saturn are in the east just after dark.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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