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June 2: Mockingbird recital
Jun. 2nd, 2010 06:50 pmI walk back and forth from my office building to my classroom building twice a day. It's not far, but there are lots of beautiful, huge old white oak and Southern pine trees on the way. I step through the modernist "archway" between the admin buildings and enter a courtyard that looks more like a cathedral of trees. The vertical space is amazing, and it's a habitat for squirrels, sparrows, crows, and even the occasional hawk or raccoon.
Today what I noticed was the mockingbird. When I got out of class at noon, he was somewhere around the admin arch, singing his heart out, so loud it almost hurt my ears. At one o'clock when I returned, he was still singing fiercely. Being pretty tired myself, I thought of the energy required for that much singing. When does he eat? Status (i.e. territory and sex) is very important to him. At three o'clock, he was still practicing. Now, I don't know for sure that it was the same bird, but it was the exact location, and mockingbirds don't give up their places to others easily. It also sounded like the same patterns of songs.
I stopped and timed him for sixty seconds: fifteen songs, or rather, fifteen times he changed calls, and most of them sounded unique. (There's a recording of a very similar recital here.) You go, bad-ass mockingbird! Way to earn your name Mimus polyglottos.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Wikimedia Commons)
The mockingbirds that live here are the "Northern Mockingbird." Folks in the five Southern U.S. states that claim the mockingbird as their state bird might do a double-take at that, but it simply refers to the variety found in North America as opposed to the ones which live in Central America and the Caribbean.
Today what I noticed was the mockingbird. When I got out of class at noon, he was somewhere around the admin arch, singing his heart out, so loud it almost hurt my ears. At one o'clock when I returned, he was still singing fiercely. Being pretty tired myself, I thought of the energy required for that much singing. When does he eat? Status (i.e. territory and sex) is very important to him. At three o'clock, he was still practicing. Now, I don't know for sure that it was the same bird, but it was the exact location, and mockingbirds don't give up their places to others easily. It also sounded like the same patterns of songs.
I stopped and timed him for sixty seconds: fifteen songs, or rather, fifteen times he changed calls, and most of them sounded unique. (There's a recording of a very similar recital here.) You go, bad-ass mockingbird! Way to earn your name Mimus polyglottos.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Wikimedia Commons)
The mockingbirds that live here are the "Northern Mockingbird." Folks in the five Southern U.S. states that claim the mockingbird as their state bird might do a double-take at that, but it simply refers to the variety found in North America as opposed to the ones which live in Central America and the Caribbean.