Life on Bowen at summer’s end

It sort of feels like summer is over although we are enjoying a warm stretch here in mid-September that has brought sun and warm temperatures and calm winds to the island. This is more typical of the summers I remember from half my life ago, before we experienced extreme heat and drought. There was always a dry patch between the middle of July and the middle of October with a bit of rain usually in August and more at the beginning of September. But in the past 20 years that pattern has changed. This summer seemed like an anomaly. But as a result of the warm spell we are having there is a second dawn chorus in full swing. Yesterday I recorded 24 birds including forest and ocean and this morning the birdsong was so overwhelming that I just from my porch I have already recorded 27 in less than a half hour. Visiting sparrows make up the interesting bits: Savannah, Fox, Lincoln and a White-throated Sparrow clear as day. All of them added to the list of this year’s birds, which is up to 315…