Ever hear a bird singing away in the middle of the night?
Do you live in the southwest states? If so, chances are, you are hearing the Mockingbird. It is the males who sing away their life during the middle of the night. They are the youngsters, whose unrequited love blares on and on without relief. Those who are successfully mated are safe (and quietly) at home with the new missus - no nocturnal singing here!
I have one, singing outside from about dark ... all night! In the early hours of the morning, roughly 5:30am (only because that is when I wake up, LOL) I hear the sweet sounds of that bird singing his heart out. Actually, he sings all night long- it is 11:38 pm right now, and he is singing away as I type this! Personally, I like it. He sings and mimics several different birdsongs, many of which are recognizable as he goes down his list of sounds. It is all quite enjoyable, and while I'm sad he is a bachelor, I am happy with his all night serenade :-)
These sleek birds eat bugs, and also their great first love, red berries. I have a Hawthorne tree in my yard, which provides great entertainment when the mockingbird comes to call; he/ she will risk all by hanging upside-down in order to secure some of those red hawthorne berries.My resident jays - Scrub jays and Stellar jays - DO NOT get along with the mockers. The mockingbirds win out in their own special way by hanging around at night time, singing ALL NIGHT LONG, whilst the jays are asleep! It is all in the balance.
11 comments:
Last summer we had a herd of cats hanging around and I did not see a single bird in the neighborhood. Now that the cats are gone, the birds are everywhere. I can hear one singing in the night and wonder if it is a mocking bird like you say. That was interesting.
somehow i find this post beautiful. some parts of it, i would probably post myself.
:) do you know that story of the swallow and the Little Prince? i just sudenly remembered it..:)
wow, you know all this birdy stuff! you are Nature Girl, there is no doubt aboot it ...
so weird that you speak of birds...
last night just before it got dark,
i heard this cacophony of birdy noise, and i said to Sarah, "is that on TV?" on the show she was watching, and then i realized, these birds were having a convention outside on my neighbours tree which hangs over our house...so i went outside and just stood there in the midst of all this singing and chirping and tweeting and more birds were being attracted to the event, each one trying to out-seduce the next, all this music swirling about my body...it was magical, and rare for this big city...man, i wish i could get notes so clear, full bodied and potent on my silver flute....maybe next time....mother nature has a way about her, dont she?
Yes I have heard them before and never knew what they were. I was always...what the hell kind of bird sings at night? Now I know and if someone asks me, I can tell them.
There use to be purple martins where I lived before and there were 2 or 3 of them that use to harass my cat. He just sat there and did nothing. He's got so much fur that I don't think he felt it. I use to take all the animal hair and throw it outside for the birds and their nests. Maybe that's what they were doing. Collecting...lol!
;o)
*sigh* No mockingbords for moi as stuck in España I am! We get bats here at night...
Although I will admit to not being a lover of constant chirping! Shame on me, I know, but there you have it!
Tom and Icy - there aren't many birds that sing nocturnally. I'd guess either a catbird, or a mockingbird. I've noticed that cats are a frequent target of mockingbirds... dive bomb style :-D
Magdalene-Sophie - Thank you. I am quite pleased to hear that from a master of words, thoughts and poetry such as yourself.
I'm afraid I don't know the story of the prince and the swallow - or maybe I'm thinking of the story of the nightengale. How does it go?
Lisa- I have a gathering such as you described regularly in my hawthorne tree - they are housefinches and goldfinches... loud and happy and cheerful - irresistable to say the least. No instrument could capture such joyous chattering dervish... but it is a wonderful thought.
Jillie - purple martins - how cool! I suppose I think they remind me of european starlings - only by what I've read. I've never actually seen one before other than in books. LOL - I'm sure they were collecting - after they got their licks in with the cat :-D
Hi Miz Bohemia - I've missed your banter and fun. SO sorry you are STILL in Spain, as we all have high hopes of seeing you grace the City of San Francisco in the not-so-distant future. I like bats. I like chirping too.
actually its interesting that you say no instrument could capture those incredible sounds of nature...those strange little people i play with, well sometimes we have gatherings that have to do more with vocal soundings and Gary's got these amazing primitive instruments from all over the world, and we use voice and vocal sound effects, whooshing hooting humming anything you could imagine doing with your voice, but there are conch shells, native flutes, didgeridoos, whistles, my silver flute, gourds, gongs etc, but sometimes we sound like what you'd hear in a tropical rainforest or somewhere exotic out in the woods...! its pretty amazing the kinds of sounds we have been able to generate! Gary calls it a soundscape, and when a dozen people are participating in this together, you get over your embarrassment pretty fast, and get totally into it so the sounds can be pretty authentic, even if we dont know what the heck we're doing! it just kind of "emerges" from us...its why i finally feel comfortable playing with this bunch of people....!
Good Morning World !!!!!Hope your day is going along smoothly Terry!!!!Fifty odd days to go till Italy--ohhh,so so COOL!!!!!Wish You the Very Best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Anonymous xoxo
(yes, we dont know
who Anonymous xoxo is!!)
I almost did a bird singing post the other day.
We were sitting on the enclosed porch before sunrise and the birds were chirping away, it was wonderful.
What a mess it would be if they had horrible screeching voices but no...God in his infinite wisdom gave them a song instead.
tc
That is beautiful. Unrequited love makes you sing your heart out in the most engaging serenade. I would listen too.
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