In recent years, the bird population has exploded around our house. Each morning, we awaken to a dawn chorus, featuring a soloist who chirps the following hackneyed song: “Birdie, birdie, tweet tweet tweet tweet.” Every since Chris pointed out those lyrics, it’s all I can hear.
Then there’s the Belushi Bird. It sings “cheeburger, cheeburger,” like a demented reincarnation of the old SNL diner skit. Chris tells me it’s the Carolina wren.
When I asked how he knew this, he said “I simply googled the words Cheeseburger and Bird” and the first ten links were all to the Carolina wren. Obviously I’m not the only person who hears what this bird is singing.”
As proof, here’s a very brief video.
Come nighttime, we are treated to the blood-curdling screams of what sounds exactly like a baby in a torture chamber. I think if you google “baby in torture chamber,” you come up with “fox in heat.” As a child, I remember hearing this ungodly shrieking coming from the woods behind my bedroom. Sure that an infant was being skinned alive, I shakily called my dad to listen and go investigate. He inclined his head towards the screen with some concern, then assured me, in those long-ago days before google, that it must just be some animal going about its normal business.
The piping of the birds, the shrieking of the foxes, the honking of the geese, the barking of the dogs….after the silence of winter, the animal kingdom has finally, truly, come fully alive.
How would you describe the fox scream? What animals are you hearing or seeing in your neighborhood?
