Thursday, October 05, 2006

A Little Birdy Told Me

I stopped by the park after work today to listen to the birds. As I walked to my spot, I didn't hear or see any. I thought maybe they had all migrated. After getting to my spot, I sat for awhile without any action. Then a group of birds flew through my spot. I could hear them calling as they came. One of them landed on the tree across the stream. I'm happy to say that I was able to identify it on the spot as a Tufted Titmouse. I looked through my bird book the night before so I remembered what it looked like.

Just as I turned to leave, I saw a small sparrow-like bird fly into the bushes toward me from the open field. Seconds later I heard a high pitched note from another bird. I immediately thought someone is coming in 2 minutes. I got 2 minutes from the Bird Language cds I've been listening to. It's about the time it takes a person to walk to where the bird is that gave the alarm.

I don't really like to be seen coming and going from my sit spot. People might be suspicious of someone walking into or out of the bushes. The scout in me also likes to hide from people.

So I decided I would wait for 2 minutes before leaving. Not long after the alarm I heard the sound of a man yelling at his dog coming closer. About 2 minutes later they were pretty close. The man was throwing a frisbee to his dog so they were actually running around the whole field area, but they definitely came in my direction.

It was cool to know that someone was coming 2 minutes ahead of time without even having to hear or see them for myself.

6 comments:

Bleach said...

So how did you get the two mintues?

Bleach said...

Is that how close a bird will let someone get until they give an alarm, two minutes away?

fooiemcgoo said...

that is pretty fricking awesome. i admire that a great deal.

Sassmouth said...

Basically yes that's how far away. It all depends on the person and circumstance. In this case, a man yelling loudly and a dog running all over the place sent out concentric rings pretty far ahead. The bird that I saw wouldn't even have had to seen them. He could have seen another bird alarm who saw another alarm who saw the man and dog. The information is passed on from animal to animal.

If you know what you're doing you can walk through the woods without setting off any alarms. There are many things involved with this. An easy example is to honor the birds by walking around them instead of right by or through them. A person doing this probably won't send out alarms 2 minutes in advance.

fooiemcgoo said...

hey! blog about something. me and brad are. get your shit together.

fooiemcgoo said...

that last comment made me lol. i was just kiddin.
you are my friend.