Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Can You Hear Them?


Perhaps it's the sunnier weather. Perhaps it's the sense that spring is closer. Whatever the case, I've been noticing the bird calls lately. I'm hearing different calls, louder calls and just more of them. Walking on my driveway last week, there was a bird in the neighbor's weeping willow that was just singing away. When I finally found it, I realized it was a Chickadee and the call it was making wasn't it's usual chicka-dee-dee-dee.

I'm using that as an example because, really, I'm terrible about being able to identify bird calls. Actually, I'm terrible with anything having to do with auditory skills. Figuring out words to songs can sometimes totally baffle me. Anyway, my point is that the calls I'm hearing now are not what I'm used to hearing. That much I can tell. Maybe the birds have different calls depending on the season? I'm pretty sure they have different calls based on attracting a mate and defending a territory. So maybe what I'm hearing is 'scouting' behavior. You know, they're starting to find the territories they're going to control for the coming season. It's a theory. LOL


Whatever the case may be, I'm enjoying it and being continually reminded that this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. Today, we will go out and fill our bird feeders. They are pretty empty now. I stocked up the other day on several different types of seeds so that I could attract as many species as possible.

Happy Bird Watching!

3 comments:

live4evermom said...

I use a big bag of seeds for my birds in about 5 days. I love seeing them and hearing them too. Nice birds you have in your neck of the woods.

walking said...

Hey, I think you gave me a good idea. I wonder if I can download all of the calls of the birds at my feeder and work on identifying them . . . I can identify the Carolina chickadee and cardinal . . . oh, and screeching squirrels . .

hicksgirl93 said...

This is a great reminder! I'm gonna go out to the store today and pick up some bird seed and fill our bird feeders so we can watch this weekend too. We have been seeing a lot of cardinals and blue jays in our back yard in the last week or two. And I think what is called turtle doves?..anyhow, it will be interesting this weekend