Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Avian Return, small stone 4


Outside my back door, I hear buzz-whistle, buzz-whistle, cheater-cheater-cheater, o-a-hu, cheer-cheer-cheer, chip-chip-chip.  The mockingbird is back from his winter vacation south of here.  Maybe his mate will come soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They're a mixed blessing, mockingbirds. So noisy, but it's a beautiful noise! Hope you enjoy yours, sounds like he's a regular visitor. Carmen P

Lorelei said...

Hi Carmen,
Yes, he and his mate have nested in our neighbor's back yard by his pool about five years now. I love it, but it was bad one year when a family of Cooper's hawks nested on the other side of us. We enjoyed seeing both sets of birds grow up, but the hawks' babies learned to hunt by eating baby mockingbirds. And they left their half-eaten food around to gross us out. Our code word for a dead baby bird became "feathers." "Careful, feathers in the front bushes, " we would say. We thought probably the adult mockinbirds would go elsewhere, but the hawks did. They never returned to that nest the next year.
cheers,
Laura