BS: Cheep Dreams

Subject: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 09:18 AM

I had a restless night's sleep last night, and about 3 in the morning, I started hearing this strange noise. When you're lying there in the dark, every sound is magnified and unfamiliar, and I was trying to figure out what it was. It sounded a little bit like a worn bearing, and at first I thought that it was the new air purifier we bought. That figured, as it was one day beyond the warranty. But, the interval between sounds was two or three seconds, and that seemed far too long to be happening every revolution. Of course, there was no way to go back to sleep with that noise, so I tried to time it. I realized that there wasn't a regular interval between noises, and sometimes, the noise was very soft. Finally, I got up to try to track it down. When I did, I realized where the sound was coming from. We have three large shrubs outside our bedroom window, and birds build a nest in one of them every Spring. The next time I heard the sound, I realized that it was coming from outside our window, and I recognized it as a soft "cheep." The momma bird was having cheep dreams. I wondered if it was something she ate. I could almost hear her muttering, "I knew I shouldn't have had that last stink bug just before I went to nest!"

And it made me wonder.

If birds could order take-out pizza, I wonder what kind of toppings they'd order.

On second thought, I'm not sure I want to know.

And then I went back to sleep..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: ranger1
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 10:42 AM

Jerry, these are thoughts only naturalists have. You, luckily, got back to sleep. Me, I would have been awake all night pondering the perfect bird pizza.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 10:50 AM

Each specie of course would most likley have a different "perfect" pizza.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 11:52 AM

I don't wanna think about a buzzard's pizza. Nope, nope, nope.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: ranger1
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 12:24 PM

Be about as bad as a seagull pizza, I figure.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 12:39 PM

They would have a thin, beak friendly crust with sweetcorn, spicy worm, bacon fat and garnished with greenfly, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 01:19 PM

No caterpillars, Guest?

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 06:14 AM

And definately no freaking anchovies...



unless they were the seagulls.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 07:33 AM

Well, if one considers the spectrum of food sources for the bird kingdom the choices are indeed vast... Heck, they even eat each other...

Give me a couple more minutes to finish reading the menu before I order...

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: gnu
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 07:58 AM

Got any whippoorwills around there Gerry? Not a strange noise, but incessant... and f**ing loud!!!

Minds me... the strangest nocturnal noise I ever heard was by porcupines doing what they do very carefully. A high pitched "heee", increasing in volume and rapidity for four or five minutes until one last, long "heeeee" which trailed off. (I am NOT making this up.) And, this was repeated about every ten to fifteen minutes for an hour before I investigated. Now, whether the noises were what one might first think or whether it was a careless porcupine, I don't know.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheep Dreams
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 09:24 AM

Praise the Lord that peacocks aren't commonplace around here. (Although I knew someone who grew up in India and said they were so common they had them for Thanksgiving like we do turkey.) Talk about practical jokes! One of the most beautiful birds on earth has the loudest, most irritating and grating call of any bird I've ever heard. I used to run an outdoor concert series at the Museum where I worked, and we had a small farm with peacocks. They loved to come to the concerts and sit fifty feet up in a tree and "sing along." It's lucky that I worked at a nature center, or they would have been on the table for Thanksgiving at our house...

Jerry