{"id":771,"date":"2008-06-05T00:56:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T00:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2014-10-01T03:26:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T03:26:30","slug":"whats-that-song-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"What’s that song again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hear much better than I can see, especially when it comes to finding birds. Because I have trouble spotting the movement of birds, I’ve come to rely on my ears more than my eyes and have tried over the years to develop my knowledge of bird songs. It’s a handy skill to have and a good way to impress non-birding friends!<\/p>\n

I’m reposting this poem cause it’s a good one and some of you may have missed it when I first shared it here.
<\/span><\/p>\n

A LISTENER’S GUIDE TO THE BIRDS<\/span> by E.B. White<\/span><\/p>\n

Wouldst thou know the lark?<\/span>
Then hark!<\/span>
Each natural bird<\/span>
Must be seen and<\/em> heard.<\/span>
The lark’s “Tee-ee” is a tinkling entreaty.<\/span>
But it’s not always “Tee-ee” –<\/span>
Sometimes it’s “Tee-titi.”<\/span>
So watch yourself.<\/span>
<\/span>
Birds have their love-and-mating song,<\/span>
Their warning cry, their hating song;<\/span>
Some have a night song, some a day song,<\/span>
A lilt, a tilt, a come-what-may song;<\/span>
Birds have their careless bough and teeter song<\/span>
And, of course, their Roger Tory Peter song.<\/span>
<\/span>
The studious ovenbird (pale pinkish legs)<\/span>
Calls, “Teacher, teacher, teacher!”<\/span>
The chestnut-sided warbler begs<\/span>
To see Miss Beecher.<\/span>
“I wish to see Miss Beecher.”<\/span>
(Sometimes interpreted as “Please please please ta<\/span>
meetcha.”)<\/span><\/p>\n

The redwing (frequents swamps and marshes)<\/span>
Gurgles, “Konk-la-ree,”<\/span>
Eliciting from the wood duck<\/span>
The exclamation “Jeeee!”<\/span>
(But that’s the male<\/em> wood duck, remember.<\/span>
If it’s his wife you seek,<\/span>
Wait till you hear a distressed “Whoo-eek!”)<\/span>
<\/span>
Nothing is simpler than telling a barn owl from a veery:<\/span>
One says, “Kschh!” in a voice that is eerie,<\/span>
The other says, “Vee-ur” in a manner that is breezy.<\/span>
(I told you it was easy.)<\/span>
On the other hand, distinguishing between the veery<\/span>
And the olive-backed thrush<\/span>
Is another matter. It couldn’t be worse.<\/span>
The thrush’s song is similar to the veery’s,<\/span>
Only it’s in reverse.<\/span>
<\/span>
Let us suppose you hear a bird say, “Fitz-bew,”<\/span>
The things you can be sure of are two:<\/span>
First, the bird is an alder flycatcher (Empidonax traillii<\/em><\/span>
traillii<\/em>);<\/span>
Second, you are standing in Ohio – or as some people<\/span>
call it, O-hee-o-<\/span>
Because, although it may come as a surprise to you,<\/span>
The alder flycatcher, in New York or New England,<\/span>
does not say, “Fitz-bew,”<\/span>
It says, “Wee-be-o.”<\/span>
<\/span>
“Chu-chu-chu” is the note of the harrier,<\/span>
Copied of course, from our common carrier.<\/span>
The osprey, thanks to a lucky fluke,<\/span>
Avoids “Chu-chu” and cries, “Chewk, chewk!”<\/span>
So there’s no difficulty there.<\/span>
<\/span>
The chickadee likes to pronounce his name;<\/span>
It’s extremely helpful and adds to his fame.<\/span>
But in spring you can get the heebie-jeebies<\/span>
Untangling chickadees from phoebes.<\/span>
The chickadee, when he’s all afire,<\/span>
Whistles, “Fee-bee,” to express his desire.<\/span>
He should be arrested and thrown in jail<\/span>
For impersonating another male.<\/span>
(There’s a way you can tell which bird is which,<\/span>
But just the same, it’s a nasty switch.)<\/span>
Our gay deceiver may fancy-free be<\/span>
But he never does fool a female phoebe.<\/span>
<\/span>
Oh, sweet the random sounds of birds!<\/span>
The old-squaw, practising his thirds;<\/span>
The distant bittern, driving stakes,<\/span>
The lonely loon on haunted lakes;<\/span>
The white-throat’s pure and tenuous thread-<\/span>
They go to my heart, they go to my head.<\/span>
How hard it is to find the words<\/span>
With which to sing the praise of birds!<\/span>
Yet birds, when they<\/em> get singing praises,<\/span>
Don’t lack for words – they know some daisies:<\/span>
“Fitz-bew,”<\/span>
“Konk-la-reeee,”<\/span>
“Hip-three-cheers,”<\/span>
“Onk-a-lik, ow-owdle-ow,”<\/span>
“Cheedle, cheedle chew,”<\/span>
And dozens of other inspired phrases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now go back and read it again out loud!<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hear much better than I can see, especially when it comes to finding birds. Because I have trouble spotting the movement of birds, I’ve come to rely on my ears more than my eyes and have tried over the years to develop my knowledge of bird songs. It’s a handy skill to have and … Continue reading What’s that song again?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}