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?
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Romance: for the birds
My backyard is surrounded on three sides by stands of mature trees, which means, particularly at this time of year, that the neighborhood birds sometimes make such a racket that I have to close my office window so I can think straight. I did that yesterday, then rushed back to open the window a few minutes later because I'd heard the lovely, haunting call of a mourning dove.
That pleasure was short-lived. The mourning dove moved on, and I soon found myself yelling at a cardinal. He was perched in the viburnum bushes next to my patio, and his staccato chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp was driving me crazy. For the first time ever, I wished the neighbor's nasty bird-chasing cat would stop by. I stalked over to the window and realized that the noisy cardinal was trying to impress his lady love.
"Just shut up and kiss her!" I said. "I'm trying to work in here."
Yes, the crazy romance writer is now offering love-tips to birds.
A friend sent me this link to a short video of some birds of paradise. It's both fascinating and hilarious. One bird is shown cleaning up debris and even polishing his branch to set the scene for the seduction of his potential mate. She's having none of it.
It just started to rain here, so the birds have run off to wherever it is that they go when it rains. It's quiet now, so I'm going back to work on my novel.
That pleasure was short-lived. The mourning dove moved on, and I soon found myself yelling at a cardinal. He was perched in the viburnum bushes next to my patio, and his staccato chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp was driving me crazy. For the first time ever, I wished the neighbor's nasty bird-chasing cat would stop by. I stalked over to the window and realized that the noisy cardinal was trying to impress his lady love.
"Just shut up and kiss her!" I said. "I'm trying to work in here."
Yes, the crazy romance writer is now offering love-tips to birds.
A friend sent me this link to a short video of some birds of paradise. It's both fascinating and hilarious. One bird is shown cleaning up debris and even polishing his branch to set the scene for the seduction of his potential mate. She's having none of it.
It just started to rain here, so the birds have run off to wherever it is that they go when it rains. It's quiet now, so I'm going back to work on my novel.
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