Birding Adventures

[emerald]

Today I found a link in my inbox I'd like to share with other bird enthusiasts.

[Kanati]

Thanks for the link. My wife and I enjoy birds and ours here are really getting ready for spring mating. We have blue bird houses and the blue birds have been scouting them out lately. The male cardinals are starting their mating call, and the wild turkeys are mating. This is a wonderful time of year.

[emerald]

My sister who's a master gardener heard Ms. Schmalz speak today and sent me her link.

[emerald]

Cardinals are calling here too. They're getting to be quite good.

Our tufted titmouse-men are calling my name and they are so loud they sometimes make me laugh out loud when I hear them.

[Kanati]

While hiking last year thru northern VA thru NH or beyond, every morning and evening I would hear this peculiar sounding bird that I had never before heard. It's call was very slow and melodious and sounded if it were coming from deep inside something like a well or cave. At times it sounded as though it was coming from an arcade. Try as I might I could not locate it. Several times I would leave the trail and sneak toward the sound but when I would get within about 100 feet of it, it stopped calling. It didn't fly away. Just stayed in place and I could not see it. I became almost obsessed with locating and identifying this bird. I just knew it had to be the most beautiful bird of all. It actually began to bother me because there was sound but no bird. I tried to block it out of my mind but it stayed there haunting me. Finally as my hike was nearing its end and I had decided to leave the trail once inside of ME, I heard it directly above the trail a hundred or so feet ahead of me. Slowly I walked toward it and It continued to call. I last heard it when within about 30 to 40 feet away. I walked very slowly, tiptoeing toward where I last heard the call, and there before me it sat about 15 feet up on a limb over the trail. It didn't fly. Just sat there. Like a departing gift or something. I looked it over good. It was just a common looking small brown bird. Nothing special to look at, but wonderful to listen too. This ending left me wondering.

I told my wife about it several times while I was hiking and I intended to buy a CD of bird sounds of the norteastern U.S. but haven't done so yet. I had all but forgotten about it until Emerald launched this thread. Thanks.

Happy hiking.

[emerald]

Your post reminds me of a similiar experience related to me by another hiker which prompted a bird quest of my own. The song called me for years until one day I followed it to a red-eyed vireo who revealed the identity of my mystery bird. My WhiteBlaze posts about them are some of my favorites.

I believe I know the name of your favorite A.T. bird too.

[STEVEM]

While hiking last year thru northern VA thru NH or beyond, every morning and evening I would hear this peculiar sounding bird that I had never before heard. It's call was very slow and melodious and sounded if it were coming from deep inside something like a well or cave. At times it sounded as though it was coming from an arcade. Try as I might I could not locate it. Several times I would leave the trail and sneak toward the sound but when I would get within about 100 feet of it, it stopped calling. It didn't fly away. Just stayed in place and I could not see it. I became almost obsessed with locating and identifying this bird. I just knew it had to be the most beautiful bird of all. It actually began to bother me because there was sound but no bird. I tried to block it out of my mind but it stayed there haunting me. Finally as my hike was nearing its end and I had decided to leave the trail once inside of ME, I heard it directly above the trail a hundred or so feet ahead of me. Slowly I walked toward it and It continued to call. I last heard it when within about 30 to 40 feet away. I walked very slowly, tiptoeing toward where I last heard the call, and there before me it sat about 15 feet up on a limb over the trail. It didn't fly. Just sat there. Like a departing gift or something. I looked it over good. It was just a common looking small brown bird. Nothing special to look at, but wonderful to listen too. This ending left me wondering.

I told my wife about it several times while I was hiking and I intended to buy a CD of bird sounds of the norteastern U.S. but haven't done so yet. I had all but forgotten about it until Emerald launched this thread. Thanks.

Happy hiking.

I bet you'll find that is a Veery. Second guess Wood Thrush or Hermit Thrush.

[woodsy]

Birds are hard subjects to photograph but managed to capture this one last summer on top of Poplar Ridge, ME @ 3,000' el.
Noting it's call i believe it to be a Swainson's Thrush, the image was taken using full zoom from about 100' away.

[Groucho]

While hiking last year thru northern VA thru NH or beyond, every morning and evening I would hear this peculiar sounding bird that I had never before heard. It's call was very slow and melodious and sounded if it were coming from deep inside something like a well or cave. At times it sounded as though it was coming from an arcade. Try as I might I could not locate it. Several times I would leave the trail and sneak toward the sound but when I would get within about 100 feet of it, it stopped calling. It didn't fly away. Just stayed in place and I could not see it. I became almost obsessed with locating and identifying this bird. I just knew it had to be the most beautiful bird of all. It actually began to bother me because there was sound but no bird. I tried to block it out of my mind but it stayed there haunting me. Finally as my hike was nearing its end and I had decided to leave the trail once inside of ME, I heard it directly above the trail a hundred or so feet ahead of me. Slowly I walked toward it and It continued to call. I last heard it when within about 30 to 40 feet away. I walked very slowly, tiptoeing toward where I last heard the call, and there before me it sat about 15 feet up on a limb over the trail. It didn't fly. Just sat there. Like a departing gift or something. I looked it over good. It was just a common looking small brown bird. Nothing special to look at, but wonderful to listen too. This ending left me wondering.

I told my wife about it several times while I was hiking and I intended to buy a CD of bird sounds of the norteastern U.S. but haven't done so yet. I had all but forgotten about it until Emerald launched this thread. Thanks.

Happy hiking.

I would guess wood thrush. Sounds of STEVEM's suggestions plus a Swainson's thrush are here: http://www.wildmusic.org/animals/thrush. The 'arcade' sound is the same description I would use. It took a while to find the song on the web when one moved into the neighborhood several years ago. I am not a birder and on the trail no one ever knew what it was. The recording above is ok, but the resident wood thrush seems to have a song that I haven't found on the web; it sounds somewhat like the start of a Donkey Kong game. My favorite song bird. Its syrinx has two sets of cords; it can make more than one song at a time.

[emerald]

Many of the posts to this thread refer to various members of Appalachia's choir which includes a number of gifted soloists. They've not yet returned to Pennsylvania's Green Diamond from their annual Southern tour.

The tufted titmice have alerted me they're on their way, but Leki Pole has indicated the preacher is still way down south with him. Let us not get our birds before our blooms! Everything in its proper time and place.