It's quiet in my house, except for the cheery bird conversations wafting in through an open window in my office. A few minutes ago I tried to separate some of the sounds and determine, without looking, just who was in my back garden. The robin's "Cheer up! Cheerio!" is always easy to identify. Another bird I'm very familiar with is the cardinal. Just about every day, one of those guys perches on the birdbath, glances around my garden, and offers up a sweet compliment: "Purty, purty, purty, purty!" There's also a mourning dove out there. That's the first bird call I ever learned to identify, never mind how many decades ago.
I went to the window just now and looked out and wondered who was sitting in the mulberry tree doing all those impressive warbles and trills. A quick trip to Learn Bird Songs, a website featuring photos and audio clips of many common birds, told me that my unidentified visitor must be a song sparrow.
If you need something to smile about today, how about listening to some bird songs?
7 comments:
I love the early mornings as the birds begin to wake... there are no other sounds to interrupt them as they greet the sun. It's an amazing sound.
I adore my birdies.
Thanks for the sweet post and the wonderful link, Brenda! Who doesn't love a birdsong? In our backyard there's usually a concert going on every morning, with different kinds of bird singing their way to glory. Birds sure are among nature's most precious treasures.
We recently had a pair of house finches nest on our balcony, which made bird life so much more fascinating than I had ever found it. I loved watching mom & dad communicate with each other and just be birds. It ended sadly :-( ... but I am fascinated with birds now.
When we moved to our new house last year, we quickly discovered that we have many, many feathered visitors. We've positioned the bird feeder where we can easily see it from either the dining room or the living room, and we keep the bird identification book handy. We see lots of sparrows and chickadees all winter long. In warmer weather, there are goldfinches and red-winged blackbirds. Mourning doves. Woodpeckers. Titmice, and something called a brown-headed cowbird. Last summer, we had a pair of orioles nesting nearby, which was a real thrill. The birdsong all day is wonderful to hear. But our favorites, by far, are the cardinals. This year we have two pair that keep coming back to our feeder, and we hear them calling back and forth all over the neighborhood from early spring right through the end of July, when all of a sudden, they disappear. I always thought it sounded like they were saying "birdie, birdie, birdie," but I like your "purty, purty, purty" much better, because that's exactly what they are!
Laurie, cowbirds are naughty -- the original deadbeat parents! They'll find a nest and push out the original eggs, then lay their own so the mommy and daddy unwittingly care for the cowbirds. No doubt the cowbird parents are out partying all night.
Katie,
Yikes! Guess this must be where the term "party animals" comes from!
I'm delighted to know that so many "birdy" people read my blog. Thanks for commenting, everyone.
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