Avian Mystery

[rejectomorph]

Before dawn, as I stood on my porch, I heard a strange bird call from the rainy sky. It was very high pitched, higher than a gull's cry, and moving very fast. It was repeated almost constantly, and answered by more calls from birds following behind it. At least four birds passed. Although I stepped off the porch and looked up into the rain, I did not see them. Perhaps they were the same color as the dim grey sky, or flying so high that they vanished in the windblown clouds. If they were that high, the calls must have been vey loud to have reached me. This afternoon, only the crows and the usual smaller birds are about, and they tell me nothing of the mystery birds who flew over this morning.

Comments

What was that???

[jaarronn.livejournal.com]

For me, one of the most enduring challenges and joys of being a birder-person is that of hearing and trying to ID birds. What makes it so challenging is that most birds have dozens of different calls, and there always seems to be a few I've never heard. Some, perhaps like the ones you heard, are downright haunting. I can still clearly hear in my mind, dozens of different ones that I've never identified - after more than 40 years of serious birding! And that is a good part of why I've remained so interested....Not knowing, in many ways is better than knowing.