Birdsong

[urbpan]

Yesterday I had to go to work, to put in my mandatory special event time. Since for some reason there isn't much traffic on Sundays, I got there early. That was good, as it gave me a chance to go for a walk on the snow, and then I came across something pretty cool. In the trees overhead was a mixed flock of blackbirds. After I shot this video, I went to go see what they were. There were 30 or 40 male red-winged blackbirds, and a dozen or so starlings. I thought I heard grackles, but I wasn't certain that I could see them. There could have been other kinds of blackbirds--brewer's, bronzed, or rusty, or maybe some brown-headed cowbirds, but I could only make out the redwings and starlings.

This video is for listening. Close your eyes and enjoy. For the birdos, how many species can you pick out?
The woodpecker was on the other side of me, in the deer enclosure. I never saw it.

Comments

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

that was wonderful. wanted to tell you before i listen to it again.

thank you.

[ms-vanilla.livejournal.com]

They sound incredibly mechanical! That is a fantastic recording.

[treeclimber47.livejournal.com]

Listening to the tape RW Blackbird was in the majority (as expected). Heard a little bit of Starling and Grackle. The only other blackbird expected would be Rusty Blackbird. I couldn't pick one out from the chatter. The woodpecker sounded like a downy. A could hear a Cardinal calling twice, that was all I could get.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how many species there are, because my own birds were far too busy happily talking back to the recording :)

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

Speaking of woodpeckers...

One pretty common thing to see/hear in my backyard is woodpeckers pecking on the telephone poles. This kind of perplexes me, since there are plenty of real trees--living and dead--in the area, but I rarely catch them in trees. They seem to like the telephone poles. I was just wondering:

Do telephone poles contain grubs or some other woodpecker treat? Do woodpeckers just like pecking things, regardless of whether there's a protein yield? Are these birds just confused?

[abearius.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I want to be birds for the next several lifetimes.