The rattling bugle calls coming from every direction high above. Many small flocks. I watched one for about 15 minutes; they were high, wings outspread but not flapping, circling lazily, round and round.

Were they riding the thermal elevator trying to gain more altitude? Were they waiting for compatriots coming up behind? Were they in a holding pattern waiting for more favorable conditions? Were they thinking about terra firma and fields of corn stubble and, therefore starting to spiral down? Not sure. But I will say that I find their penetrating calls exhilarating and un-ignorable.