bounty of wood thrush
DBRUM
the vicinity of northern Cabell County, West Virginia. These elusive yet
boisterous birds--described by some as having the most beautiful, or at
least most stirring song of any American bird--were *everywhere* in the
hills! One would turn down the car radio while cruising the country roads
in order to listen to their voices ringing through the hollows. It was
quite fascinating; I almost got to taking the sound for granted, there
were that many. We had the 17-year cicada then, and *they* were everywhere
too. Maybe the additional bounty of this extra food source added to the
numbers/activity of the wood thrush.
--danny
--
"Were his solid black square paintings really,
as the artist claimed, simply neutral, abstract
compositions devoid of external references and
meanings?" ***********************************
Greg Pasquariello
>
> Last spring/summer ('91) was a bumper season for wood thrush in
> the vicinity of northern Cabell County, West Virginia. These elusive yet
> boisterous birds--described by some as having the most beautiful, or at
> least most stirring song of any American bird--were *everywhere* in the
> hills!
For my money, the most magnificent song of any American bird comes from either
the hermit thrush, or the winter wren. Spectacular, both of 'em.
>
> --danny
>
> --
--
---
Greg Pasquariello g...@magpie.unify.com
Unify Corporation (916) 928-6258
greg porter
>In article <77...@muvms3.bitnet>, rcb...@muvms3.bitnet (DBRUM) writes:
>>
>> Last spring/summer ('91) was a bumper season for wood thrush in
>> the vicinity of northern Cabell County, West Virginia. These elusive yet
>> boisterous birds--described by some as having the most beautiful, or at
>> least most stirring song of any American bird--were *everywhere* in the
>> hills!
>
>For my money, the most magnificent song of any American bird comes from either
>the hermit thrush, or the winter wren. Spectacular, both of 'em.
>
>>
>> --danny
>
I would have to agree last summer we had the pleasure of visting
the California's North Coast Redwoods and while hiking on a trail we came
upon a Winter Wren singing its little heart out...it was so magnificent
that we sat down and let the little guy entertain us for about 15 minutes.
This was definitly one of the birding highlights of our trip!
Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
--
Greg Porter _|_ gpo...@csus.edu
California State University, Sacramento | ucdavis!csusac!porterg
University Telecommunications Services (UTS) | (916) 278-4734
-- All opinions are my own and not of my employer --
Ruth D Miller
Carolina Wren. But I've never heard a Wood Thrush (and knew it) or
a House Wren. The Carolina was common in SC where we lived a year.
One beauty would come and pick up cat hair from our back porch, and
serenade our lovebirds. Drove them nuts!
The English Robin also has a deservedly high reputation for lovely song.
Ruth
Bill Venables
porter) writes:
>
> Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
Pied butcherbird, on a moonlit night right after a tropical downpour in
northern Australia.
Why? Both indescribably beautiful and so unexpected.
OK, so this is not an _American_ bird, but hey, the world's a bigger place!
--
Bill Venables, Dept. of Statistics, | Email: vena...@stats.adelaide.edu.au
Univ. of Adelaide, South Australia. | Tel: +61 8 228 5412 Fax: ...232 5670
David Graham
>>For my money, the most magnificent song of any American bird comes from either
>>the hermit thrush, or the winter wren. Spectacular, both of 'em.
>>
>>Greg Pasquariello g...@magpie.unify.com
>
> I would have to agree last summer we had the pleasure of visting
>the California's North Coast Redwoods and while hiking on a trail we came
>upon a Winter Wren singing its little heart out...it was so magnificent
>that we sat down and let the little guy entertain us for about 15 minutes.
>This was definitly one of the birding highlights of our trip!
>
> Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
My favourite N.A. bird song has to be Hermit Thrush; there's nothing
like a camp site at dusk with that fluty, crystalline song filtering out
of the woods all around you--gives me the shivers just to think of it.
(Longing for spring already!)
Fox Sparrow is another favourite, since they start singing here when
it's really still winter (end of March, beginning of April) and nothing
else is doing much of anything.
Favourite European bird song? Wood Lark has to be top of the list for
me: it has the same eerie, haunting quality that Hermit Thrush has. I'll
never forget standing on a hillside in Spain at dusk, listening to a
Wood Lark's song floating towards us across a ravine from the middle
distance: definitely a personal Great Moment in Birding.
I enjoy the wrens too, but they're a little insistent for my taste. Same
goes for Nightingale, IMHO an overrated songster. I'm not crazy about
singing Skylarks for the same reason, not the mention the crick you get
in your neck trying to see them! :-)
My favourite bird song in the 'novelty' (as opposed to pure melody) line
has to be Cetti's Warbler, which has an extremely loud and explosive
call which is guaranteed to startle the daylights out of you as you're
creeping through the bushes in pursuit of that elusive LBJ you thought
you saw in there. :-)
>--
> Greg Porter _|_ gpo...@csus.edu
> California State University, Sacramento | ucdavis!csusac!porterg
> University Telecommunications Services (UTS) | (916) 278-4734
> -- All opinions are my own and not of my employer --
--
David Graham, Dept of French & Spanish ** dgr...@morgan.ucs.mun.ca
Memorial University of Newfoundland *-/-* dgr...@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Ron Mura
>
> Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
I have to second the original poster's wood thrush. Why is harder to
explain--I guess it's the feelings the it evokes in me. At our place
in Vermont, wood thrush, hermit thrush, and veery all sing on late spring
and summer evenings. It's quite an experience. Some evenings I just spend
from 8 to 9 p.m. in the hammock listening to them. (There are also winter
wren on the property who sing during the day, and they are indeed great
singers too.) Getting back to the "why," it has something to do with being
removed and away from the massive effects of civilization; there a timeless-
ness to it, a feeling that these same species were singing in the same
places hundreds of year ago.
--
- Ron Mura, Natick, Massachusetts rm...@world.std.com
R.J.Blake
Favorite Bird Songs?
No song, but...
In the Adirondacks of New York there is a place, Big Moose Lake, where we
used to go every summer. On an island in its north bay there was one tall
dead tree with an osprey's nest in the top. It was always the offical start
of the summer vacation to run the boat up there, anchor offshore, and listen
to the mates call (scream) to each other or scream at other intruding hawks
as they chased them away from their territory. It isn't a song, but I love
to hear a hawk's scream/whistle.
--
The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought
stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of
the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and
rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
David A Rintoul
such a little fluffball; you definitely know it is spring
when you hear this song in the woods.
--
Dave Rintoul Internet: drin...@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
Biology Division - KSU BITNET: drin...@ksuvm.ksu.edu
Manhattan KS 66506-4901 TCN: id2418
(913)-532-5832 or 6663 FAX: (913)-532-6653
DBRUM
In article <1992Jan16.1...@csus.edu>, por...@nextnet.csus.edu (greg porter) writes:
> In article <bs2...@Unify.Com> g...@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) writes:
>>In article <77...@muvms3.bitnet>, rcb...@muvms3.bitnet (DBRUM) writes:
>>>
>>> Last spring/summer ('91) was a bumper season for wood thrush in
>>> the vicinity of northern Cabell County, West Virginia. These elusive yet
>>> boisterous birds--described by some as having the most beautiful, or at
>>> least most stirring song of any American bird--were *everywhere* in the
>>> hills!
>>
>>For my money, the most magnificent song of any American bird comes from either
>>the hermit thrush, or the winter wren. Spectacular, both of 'em.
>>
>>>
>>> --danny
>>Greg Pasquariello g...@magpie.unify.com
>>
>
> I would have to agree last summer we had the pleasure of visting
> the California's North Coast Redwoods and while hiking on a trail we came
> upon a Winter Wren singing its little heart out...it was so magnificent
> that we sat down and let the little guy entertain us for about 15 minutes.
> This was definitly one of the birding highlights of our trip!
>
> Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
> -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Greg Porter _|_ gpo...@csus.edu
> California State University, Sacramento | ucdavis!csusac!porterg
> University Telecommunications Services (UTS) | (916) 278-4734
> -- All opinions are my own and not of my employer --
This might sound odd, but I kind of like the sound of the tufted titmouse.
True, there's not much to the song itself, just a lone, I suppose what would
be called "plaintive" cry. But the sound of it, piercing the empty chill of
early spring, is really stirring to me. It's a tiny bird, but it's call is
very clear and carries very well; one often searches veinly through the
leafless branches well beyond where the little bird is actually sitting.
Jennifer Norman
>In article <1992Jan16.1...@csus.edu> por...@nextnet.csus.edu (greg
>porter) writes:
>> Anyone else have a favorite bird song and why?
>OK, so this is not an _American_ bird, but hey, the world's a bigger place!
What about one from South Africa!
The most beautiful liquid song I have heard was from the Chorister
Robin. Once you've heard this, you've heard an awful lot as it
imitates about 80 other species with it's own song and variations
in between.
Jenny
哪哪哪哪哪哪哪哪哪哪哪哪
Jennifer Norman, Computer Services, Univ. of Natal, Durban, South Africa
E-MAIL: nor...@cc.und.ac.za
John Shipman
the "pure mocker invention" parts of a mockingbird's song, but
with very little repetition. It is not so rapid as wren song,
more sweet and languid. Bendire's and Curve-billed thrashers
are close runners-up.
--
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/jo...@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber
Bob McKay
favourite songster has to be the golden whistler - a very liquid, trilling
quality with enormous variation. Close second and third would be the grey
shrike thrush (beautiful tone, but the song's not so inventive) and the
Australian magpie (inventive and around an octave below most songbirds range,
but to my ear a little harsh; reminds me of the British BBC bird song request
program - this is QUITE a few years ago - that received a request to play
the Oz magpie. Quite an achievement for them to have it, but... They obviously
listened to it & decided it had been recorded at the wrong speed, because
it sounded more like an English blackbird when they'd finished with it).
As for mimics, the lyrebird takes a lot to beat. I'm pretty familiar with them,
and I'm well aware they're around, but I still get caught by 'hmm, sounds like
there's a currawong in that thicket; strange place for a rosella though; and a..
damn, caught again'
The golden whistler and the lyrebird have the additional plus that they're
both pretty spectacular lookers as well.
--
Bob McKay Phone: +61 6 268 8169 fax: +61 6 268 8581
Dept. Computer Science Internet: r...@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au
ADFA, Northcott Dve UUCP:...!uunet!munnari!csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au!rim
Campbell ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA ARPA: rim%csadfa.cs....@uunet.uu.net