Titmouse and Chickadee countersinging

White-tailed Deer, Ridge Hill Reservation, Needham, MA

Stomped through the Ridge Hill Reservation woods in the rain this afternoon in the mood for strangeness. I got it in the form of an eerie scraggly white-tailed deer that I surprised coming off the trail onto the gas line easement.

Not much bird song. Sporadic bursts of pine warbler, which would stop as soon as I'd lift my binoculars. The dominant sound echoing through the woods was the song of one particularly dominant tufted titmouse. At one point he was joined by another singing a bit lower. The two in combination make an exceptionally appealing sound.

Not unlike counter-singing black-capped chickadees, which can be heard exchanging choruses against a background of chipping sparrows and pine warblers trying to out-trill each other.