Friday, July 17, 2009

To Hear A Mockingbird

Birdsong is a lovely thing, one that I have for some reason really never paid attention to. Today as I was getting out of my car after a particularly bad day at work full of drama I was struck by the sounds of a bird sitting in the cedar tree in my neighbor's yard (I think it has a nest there). It was amazing the range of sound coming from this lone bird. I sat down on my deck to listen to it as it warbled, chirped, tweeted, and chirred. Listening to that little bird made my bad mood slip away.

I looked it up later and found it was a mockingbird. The website I found to hear it's song had other birds and I spent the next hour listening to all of them. I never realized that I had heard all of these birds and just never listened to them. Worse yet, I use bird imagy in my artwork alot. I should know more about them.

There was the mourning dove and it's sweet cooing
http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=7, the blue jay with it's loud scolding http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=5, the purdie purdie of the cardinals http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=3, and many others. I think my favorite will be the mockingbird http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=4. I was even entertained as said bird attacked a cat that got too close.

To say that I never listened to the birds around me, I spoke wrong. I have noticed the screech owl and whoopoowill on my nightly walks. They have both have been sadly silent these past few years. I hope that they have moved on and not fallen to a bad end. Oh, and of course, there is the ever present ravens in the autumn.

I think I'll go get some bird seed tomorrow and try to entice the little darlings into my yard.

No comments: