“Feeebe, Feebe,” calls a bird from nearby woodland. Anne and I are in the community pool and when I hear the familiar call.  I tell Anne that it is an eastern phoebe.

This flycatcher flies from the woodlands and perches on the cyclone fence enclosing the pool. It flies up five feet, then lands back on its fence perch. This behavior is typical of flycatchers. Phoebes find a good spot to watch for insects that they can snatch out of the air. This phoebe repeatedly flies up to catch mayflies, damsel flies and other small bugs. Then it drops down on the lawn and comes back to its perch with what appears to be a large insect or caterpillar that it devours.

When we lived in New York, eastern phoebes were harbingers of spring and nested in the woodlands around lakes and rivers. Eastern phoebes migrate south in the fall into southern U.S. and Central America. So now they are harbingers of fall to us living in Florida.