Wednesday, May 18, 2005
The Cat's Meow
The second line storm of the day just drove me indoors. A steady wind out of the southwest is pushing these narrow, gusty storms towards us, like ripples on a pond. They move very rapidly, so that we go from warm sunshine to cold downdraft winds and rain in a matter of minutes. As I walked up the path towards the house, the birds were scattering before the gusty winds, like so many leaves, heading for the fir trees. Just a few minutes before, I was marvelling at how many different birdcalls I could pick out just standing in one spot: house wren, cardinal, chickadee, robin, tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, red-winged blackbird, red-eyed vireo, flicker, field sparrow, dove, house sparrow, Baltimore oriole, and the catbird. I love the catbird's endless, enthusiastic singing, but when they show up in early May, listening to bird calls gets a LOT more complicated, as they make as much noise as all of the other birds put together, and imitate so many different birds (as well as meowing at the cats, which the cats pretend they don't hear). We've never had quail here, so I was quite excited not long ago to hear the clear "bob-white" call several times, only to have my hopes dashed, as the catbird then went off into a long song containing parts of the calls of about six other birds, and lots of made-up stuff. You've got to like their enthusiasm, though.
// posted by IBOY @ 2:58 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
I am VERY fond of our dapper little catbirds. I usually just hear the catty noises from them here, though.
That's okay because we have our own resident mimic - mockingbirds!
Post a Comment
That's okay because we have our own resident mimic - mockingbirds!
# posted by 
: May 18, 2005
: May 18, 2005 << Home
