I cheated on this one, and did not draw the Western Kingbird out of my jar. Instead, I drew it as a tribute to the "Mystery Bird" that has been waking us up every night at 4am for the past week or so with an incredible, LOUD morning song. I mean, this song is SOOOO loud, it is truly remarkable. We had no idea what it was: an owl? a love-sick Grackle? So, the other morning, Randy got the camera out and took an audio clip of it, and posted it to his Birding Listserv. (You can listen to it
here). Within minutes, we got a half-dozen responses back: Western Kingbird! Apparently, these guys have "morning songs" that sound like a dog's incessant squeaky toy, much different from the songs and calls they make during the day, the sounds we recognize as Western Kingbirds. Who knew? Apparently alot of people!
Anyway, my sincere thanks to the Listserve folks for solving our mystery. Western Kingbirds usually nest around our neighborhood in the spring. They arrived this year right around April 11th. They usually stick around through most of the summer, and we love watching these nimble yellow-and-gray birds float up into the sky from atop a tree branch to catch a bug, then flutter back into place. They are gorgeous birds. And, apparently, with alot on their mind at 4am. But it's nice to have them around, so I'm not going to complain, we are just going to keep our window shut at night!
Here it's robins tweeting from about 3am until the sun comes up. Even with the windows closed, if we didn't have a fan going, they'd wake us up.
ReplyDeleteThey bookend the days with a ruckus. Flying in to roost at night, they sound a lot like the flying monkeys in Oz, so we call them the monkeys.
Again, I have to say I love the sketch. I'm glad to see you active again, if not sleeping (all night).