So I have a new bird feeder.
Actually, I have two, but the one causing all the commotion is a Nyjer seed feeder, a long mesh cylinder meant to hold the tiny little seeds that finches eat.
Naively, I thought I might get to see a Lesser Goldfinch or two.
Little did I know that apparently my entire neighborhood is full of finches, Pine Siskins in Mongol-like hordes, clouds of Lesser Goldfinches (eight on the feeder at once, yesterday), House Finches with their bright red foreheads, and all of them are really, really hungry. The enthusiasm for the new feeder has passed through gratifying and gotten sort of scary.
Today, I came home to find that someone who lives in the same house with me had pruned the apricot tree, where the feeders hang. I'm told the birds didn't like this. They disapproved of the feeder being moved. They didn't want to get off the feeder, and they sat on nearby branches, even branches that were being pruned, glaring, one imagines, with their beady little eyes. "That's OUR food! We know our rights!" Even the chickadees, when an impious hand touched their seed feeder, apparently lined up along the fence top, chirping in a hostile fashion. I'm not sure how much of this story to believe, but I know one thing:
They like the feeder a LOT.
Which leads, in a roundabout way, to my birdsong tapes. My sister gave me these, and I listen to them in the car. Supposedly, they enable the birder to learn bird calls. Actually, what they've taught me is that most birds make truly godawful noises. This is accentuated by the way the tapes are recorded. The name of the bird, spoken by a narrator, is recorded very quietly. The bird call is recorded at, like, 1 million decibels. So the experience of listening to the tapes goes as follows:
Me: What the heck did that person just say the bird was --
Bird, on tape: SHRIEEEEEK!!!!!!
Me: Ouch! %#^*)!! tape!
Some of the bird songs are funny, and some are appealing, but many are just loud. Take the bobwhite. It sounds like a pretty little songbird, that burbles "bob-white, bob-white". Well, it may be a pretty little songbird, but its call is basically, "bob-WHITE!!!! bob-WHITE!!!" with the "WHITE!!!" being a scream that sounds like the cry of a terminally psychotic person who has just sat on a tack.
The Varied Thrush, apparently, says: EEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN, or, for variety,
OOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNN.
So, I don't know about this bird thing. They may be out to get us after all. Don't forget, they're really dinosaurs.
--Kyri
