Friday, May 15, 2009

How many mosquito bites is it worth to listen to a wood thrush in a branch right overhead?



There he was at Cutler, perched on a branch about ten feet over the trail. I recognized his voice before he started singing. I pulled out the camera and got the shot above, then pulled out the recorder and stood for four minutes, brushing away mosquitoes at one minute intervals. Miraculously, no joggers, mountain bikers, or dog walkers passed through during that time.

Here are the last three minutes (the first minute has too much camera noise/mosquito slapping to play here).
The first features 18 songs, each a little different.
During the second, you can hear (especially with headphones) the emergence of other wood thrush voices.
During the third, those other voices get louder and closer (as does a robin, who also starts singing). Then the wood thrush flies away.

Other Cutler stuff.(The lighting was already a bit poor, but I had some interesting subjects to take poor photos of.)

Actually, this male rose-breasted grosbeak turned out OK. Though the best shot was from the back, which kind of misses that rose-breasted thing...



Also, best from the back, a female yellow warbler, who was working furiously to collect nest material, and coming right out into the open for it.



And finally, this odd one, though I figured it out when I got home. Orange and black bird, not a baltimore oriole, but not a typical orchard oriole either. Unleashes a couple of very nice phrases.

The books indicate this is a first year male orchard, not yet all dark and chestnutty.

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