I’m an early riser and the early sunrises and the brightening morning skies lure me outside. I’m often sitting on the back deck watching the bats making their last feeding forays before slipping behind a loose shutter for the daylight hours.

About the same time the sky is just bright enough to see bats, the local birds awaken.

Our yard and the adjoining neighbor’s host a few pairs robins.

The male robins either enjoy singing so much or they are still singing to keep their territories. Either way, that first hour of the morning is filled with robin songs.

For at least the past eight years there has been a pair of catbirds nesting in the Norway spruce trees that border the yard.

I’m sure it isn’t the same “8-year-old male” but he too does his singing thing.

Catbirds belong to the family mimidae and they, like mockingbirds, are pretty good mimics. That male uses the top of one of the spruces as his perch. He too chimes in and now there is a chorus of robins and a lone catbird.

About the same time, the house wrens stirs and his chattering adds to my morning’s music selection.

Throw in the song sparrow and there is a quartet.

My introduction here was to alert you that if you too hear all these bird songs, be aware that in the next two or three weeks, the mornings will be much quieter.

The hormone levels in the male birds that stimulated them in early April to “sing up a storm” are decreasing now that most of the nesting is soon over.

If you are still taking your nature walks in a forest or woodlot, the ovenbirds, wood thrushes, and warblers are already dropping into silent mode.

Other things to note are the early departures of some of our birds. Over my many years of monitoring my bluebird nest boxes I’ve hosted many, many tree swallows in them as well. They, unlike the bluebirds, have only one brood.

The current pair in our backyard is feeding hungry youngsters now and by the time this column is printed, will have fledged. A day or two later, they, and the adult swallows are gone.

Their post breeding dispersal takes them to rivers or lakes which have ample supplies of flying insects. In late September, they move a bit farther south.

Two other bird species will leave our Times News area soon, the common grackles and the Baltimore orioles.

The latter are one of our earliest migrants and usually within about 2 weeks after the young fledge, they begin heading to their Mexico and Central American winter habitats. The other early departing birds are the grackles.

They arrived here in March and later, after territories are established, have their one nest. Currently I’ve been watching young grackles following the adults across the brown lawn begging for food.

They’ll soon form large flocks and feed throughout the forests and woodlots till autumn, when they fly to Maryland, Delaware, or the Virginia area to feed on waste grains in fields there.

So, enjoy your morning serenades and the last visits of orioles or grackles because they’ll soon be quiet and/or gone again till next year.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: There is one tireless singer that you can still hear singing almost into late August, it is the ________. A. brown thrasher B. red-eyed vireo C. barn swallow D. red-winged blackbird

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Very hot summer temperatures can cause many amphibians to seek relief by going into estivation, similar to a short hibernation but in summer