Backyard Vagrant

As I walked to the car this morning in the damp, cloud-draped pre-dawn at about 6:40 AM, I was surprised to hear the plaintive call of the Eastern Phoebe coming from our neighbor’s yard across the street. In 20 years at this address, this is my first encounter with a phoebe in our urban backyard. The cold front that passed through last evening, bringing a thunderstorm and steady rain starting at about 11:00 PM, apparently caused a small fallout of early spring migrants.