Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Ubiquitous Mockingbird


A daily sight at my home is this Mockingbird sitting high up in our crabapple tree.

Mockingbirds are among my favorite birds; not for their bright plumage but rather for their song. I love listening to them sing on summer evenings. Mockingbirds are the only birds I know of that will sing all day and continue on throughout the night. This is one habit of theirs that my wife could do without!

I don’t know if it has tried any of the fruit but this is its favorite place to sit while watching over its kingdom. I have not observed any birds attempting to eat the crabapples but now that freezing weather is upon us some of the fruit is dropping and attracting deer into our lawn. This morning as I left before dawn a small herd of deer spooked from under the tree. Amazingly, they spooked at me while our beagle, Sparky, slept soundly in his house not twenty feet from them.

I believe Sparky has an understanding with the wildlife; don’t bother me and I’ll not bother you :)

10 comments:

dot said...

Funny about Sparky the faithful watchdog!
Very nice shot of the mockingbird! I was looking for red berries not long ago and I noticed the birds had cleaned off our little dogwood tree.

Unknown said...

That is a lovely photograph you have Salty. I like the background of berries very much.

photowannabe said...

I would love to hear what a Mocking Bird sounds like. Love this picture with all the red berries on it.

Anonymous said...

Mockingbirds are nice birds. So far as I know I have never seen one here. But then I have only lived here 45 years. It took 44 years for the Brown Thrasher and Rose-breasted Grosbeak to show up. So, maybe the mockingbirds will arrive next summer.

We have robins who perch in the crabapple tree all winter or one does and claims that tree and it fruit as its own. It will stay there and defend the tree and fruit all winter. Amazing. And in the end, or about springtime, the dried-up fruit is gone.

Nice photograph and narrative.

Kerri Farley said...

Your picture is beautiful....I love the background berries.

We have LOTS of Mockingbirds here. I like their song too! And I also like how they can "tell off" the other birds when they dont' want them around....and I have also seen them "dive bomb" a few cats that are around :)

It's funny how I take for granted Mockingbirds....I have grown up around them all of my life...yet some have never seen them before.
I will need to appreciate the ones around here better!!

Tina Leigh said...

Our mocking birds aint as pretty as that fella! I love the picture...it would be a nice framed picture. Sparky sounds like a pretty good dog to me!

Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto) said...

I had my first Northern Mockingbird experience this year. Our guy sat right at the top of our huge Douglas Fir and did his copy cat repertoir all day and night. I did a bit of research on them and apparantly they can do over 50 different calls. When they have found their mate they will only make a noise in the day, but up til then they do it 24 7 which can be tiring LOL.

I love this one with the berries, I will try to find the link to my pics earlier this year, they are somewhere on my blog. I got obsessed with catching him "flashing" his white underwings.

Great post.

Lori

Catherine said...

Great shot!! Looks so beautiful with the little crab apples in the background!
Happy Holidays!
Cat

Tom said...

I've never seen a Mocking Bird before so thank you Salty..

Wolf Lover Girl said...

What a beautiful shot and such great color!!

I've seen our mockingbirds dive bomb cats and people. I love the "warnings" when we get a little too close. I just move on real quickly.

~ Wolf Lover Girl