Monday, May 31, 2010

Birds in the City

In recent days, and nights, we've started to notice bird, or birds, calling very loudly in the middle of the night, right outside our window. It's quite strange, and with this relatively quiet holiday weekend I thought it would be a good chance to capture the beautiful sounds that are so often drowned out by cars, honking, yelling, music and general city noise.

What bird(s) are singing so loudly? The husband contends it's a mockingbird given the wide variety of calls and that the location doesn't seem to change. Who am I to argue with his midwestern knowledge of all things nature.

Inspired by the bluejay on East 5th Street, I attempted to capture a minute of beautiful bird music to share.




According to one site, mockingbird populations in New York have climbed 10% in recent years and people are complaining about the noise. Personally, I love this noise.

3 comments:

Susan said...

Hi Jill
It is a mockingbird. I went out the other night to just listen to him. He was in the tree in front of Barbara & Ray's house, his favorite spot. Middle of the block, we all hear the concert. He is very inventive. I have heard him do the, "beepbeepbeep" of a car backing up.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Interesting! I've been hearing birds at night, too, and wondered what was up. So cool to know these are mockingbirds.

Anonymous said...

It sure is a mockingbird; I heard 'em last year, too. They turn up in El Sol at the height of spring migration. Here in the city I've heard them do the whole car alarm cycle: woooooo-EE-yooooo-EE-yoooooo-EE-yoooooo / woo-ooh-ooh-up, woo-ooh-ooh up / aanh-aanh-aanh-aanh-aanh-aanh-aanh-aanh / ehrw. ehrw. ehrw. ehrw. et cetera.
Don't mean to encourage this sort of thing outside your window, but they love a whistlin' contest if you got game.