Catbird

[Bonnie Espenshade]

Our local catbirds have added a new sound to their
repertoire - the sound of the "scarecrow". DH and I
were sitting on the porch when the bird started and
I said did you hear that? He started laughing. The
chipmunks set the scarecrow off often enough for the
bird to learn the sound.
--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/

[LeeAnne]

What does the scarecrow sound like?

I have decided that if 'my' mockingbirds ever come back and nest in the
large bush in my backyard I'm going to set up a tape recorder w/just a loop
of that whistle noise from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - ooo e ooo e ooooo-
and teach them that. I bet the catbirds could have learned it too.

I hope they come back and I hope it works! I wonder how long it takes them
to learn?

LeeAnne


"Bonnie Espenshade" > wrote in message
...
> Our local catbirds have added a new sound to their
> repertoire - the sound of the "scarecrow". DH and I
> were sitting on the porch when the bird started and
> I said did you hear that? He started laughing. The
> chipmunks set the scarecrow off often enough for the
> bird to learn the sound.
> --
> Bonnie
> NJ
> http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/
>
>

[BenignVanilla]

"LeeAnne" > wrote in message
...
> What does the scarecrow sound like?
>
> I have decided that if 'my' mockingbirds ever come back and nest in the
> large bush in my backyard I'm going to set up a tape recorder w/just a
loop
> of that whistle noise from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - ooo e ooo e
ooooo-
> and teach them that. I bet the catbirds could have learned it too.
>
> I hope they come back and I hope it works! I wonder how long it takes
them
> to learn?
<snip>

We were camping a few weeks back, and my 5 year old found a mockingbird that
knew how to do the wheee-who-whit...ya know that whistle that says, "Hey you
over there, Hey! HEY!"

BV.

[Bonnie Espenshade]

LeeAnne wrote:
> What does the scarecrow sound like?
>
> I have decided that if 'my' mockingbirds ever come back and nest in the
> large bush in my backyard I'm going to set up a tape recorder w/just a loop
> of that whistle noise from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - ooo e ooo e ooooo-
> and teach them that. I bet the catbirds could have learned it too.
>
> I hope they come back and I hope it works! I wonder how long it takes them
> to learn?
>
> LeeAnne
The sound is like a shshh shshh, shshh. Not a sound that I
can imitate ;-)
--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/

[Anne Lurie]

Just you wait, Susan, just you wait! You may rue the day the mockingbird
learned how to meow! I say that because I'm a birder from way back, and one
way I can tell the calls of the "real" birds near me (especially Killdeer)
is that the mockingbird repeats the call more often and *much* louder.

I've heard people say that mockingbirds have learned to imitate the
beep-beep of a truck going in reverse -- and that it gets rather annoying
after the first hour or so!

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC





"Susan H. Simko" > wrote in message
...
> The local mockingbirds (nesting in the backyard) do a wicked car alarm.
> *laugh* Fortunately not as loud as thereal thing. Since they hit the
> suet feeder regularly that is immediately next to our patio and have no
> qualms about doing so when we're outside, the cats and I have been
> working on teaching them to meow. The cats from inside the house on the
> opposite of the french doors that open onto the patio. You can imagine
> how pathetic the meows sound. *grin* The mockingbird is quite
> obviously paying attention.
>
> Susan
> shsimko at duke dot edu
>

[Susan H. Simko]

Anne Lurie wrote:

> Just you wait, Susan, just you wait! You may rue the day the mockingbird
> learned how to meow! I say that because I'm a birder from way back, and one
> way I can tell the calls of the "real" birds near me (especially Killdeer)
> is that the mockingbird repeats the call more often and *much* louder.

Since the mockingbirds allow me to live in their territory, I have
learned to enjoy them. I actually find our resident pair to be quite
amusing. The people who get irritated seem to be the neighbours who
don't appear to have much appreciation for nature.

> I've heard people say that mockingbirds have learned to imitate the
> beep-beep of a truck going in reverse -- and that it gets rather annoying
> after the first hour or so!

I'm really surprised they haven't learned that since the neighborhood
isn't very old (three years) and parts are still under construction.
They may be new to our area, attracted because of our feeders. No one
else in our immediate area feeds them except for us and they've got a
smorgasbord at our house - suet, black sunflower seed, mixed seed,
safflower seed, thistle seed, fruit and nut special mix along with tons
of bird friendly plants including sunflowers grown just to watch the
goldfinches eat them.

The one "call" of our resident mockingbirds that still makes me laugh
out loud every time I hear it is the car alarm. Funny, because hearing
the real thing just annoys the heck out of me.

Susan
shsimko at duke dot edu

[Susan H. Simko]

Anne Lurie wrote:

> Just you wait, Susan, just you wait! You may rue the day the mockingbird
> learned how to meow! I say that because I'm a birder from way back, and one
> way I can tell the calls of the "real" birds near me (especially Killdeer)
> is that the mockingbird repeats the call more often and *much* louder.

Since the mockingbirds allow me to live in their territory, I have
learned to enjoy them. I actually find our resident pair to be quite
amusing. The people who get irritated seem to be the neighbours who
don't appear to have much appreciation for nature.

> I've heard people say that mockingbirds have learned to imitate the
> beep-beep of a truck going in reverse -- and that it gets rather annoying
> after the first hour or so!

I'm really surprised they haven't learned that since the neighborhood
isn't very old (three years) and parts are still under construction.
They may be new to our area, attracted because of our feeders. No one
else in our immediate area feeds them except for us and they've got a
smorgasbord at our house - suet, black sunflower seed, mixed seed,
safflower seed, thistle seed, fruit and nut special mix along with tons
of bird friendly plants including sunflowers grown just to watch the
goldfinches eat them.

The one "call" of our resident mockingbirds that still makes me laugh
out loud every time I hear it is the car alarm. Funny, because hearing
the real thing just annoys the heck out of me.

Susan
shsimko at duke dot edu

[LeeAnne]

BV, in case you may have been wondering - the call you heard the Catbird do
is that of the Eastern Wood Pewee.

LeeAnne

"BenignVanilla" > wrote in message
news:bfhdq8$ete60$1@ID-> We were camping a few weeks back, and my 5 year old
found a mockingbird that
> knew how to do the wheee-who-whit...ya know that whistle that says, "Hey
you
> over there, Hey! HEY!"
>
> BV.
>
>

[LeeAnne]

BV, in case you may have been wondering - the call you heard the Catbird do
is that of the Eastern Wood Pewee.

LeeAnne

"BenignVanilla" > wrote in message
news:bfhdq8$ete60$1@ID-> We were camping a few weeks back, and my 5 year old
found a mockingbird that
> knew how to do the wheee-who-whit...ya know that whistle that says, "Hey
you
> over there, Hey! HEY!"
>
> BV.
>
>