Well, for the past few weeks I have been lulled to sleep in the wee wee hours of the mornings, I am talking between 3 and 5am, by the delightful yet out of place chirps and coos of songbirds. The night air is as stale and the day time, but songs at night from beaks sounds twice, maybe even three times better than the day. Actually, now that I have been thinking about it the sounds are sweeter and more in the traditional fashion of song birds of good 'ole call and response. In my bedroom the bed is situated in a corner with two windows on either side which I leave open at night. Both face opposing directions and reveal very different outsides. One the giant lush back yard and my studio in the detached garage and the other is the driveway and janky fence of the always absent neighbor. Mind you the latter is not a high traffic area but for me and my bike, yet has a significant concentration of the deeper more rumbly coos in the night. Is this where the male songbirds live? The back yard is where the lighter more chirpy cries come from and has a lot more acorns. Is this where the females songbirds hold it down? Regardless of the gender identities I have assigned the songbirds of Otsego Street I want to know what they look like and record them doing their thing so I can carry around their sweet little love songs in my pocket to remind me that even in the middle of the night a song bird still sings.
PS I some how had a memory in my mind that Caitlin (riot-siren.blogspot.com) had fore warned me about these lightless singers, but upon retuning to Portland and throwing down a fantastic art show together I found out, no my mind was playing tricks on me. However, she recalls Matisse telling tales of songbirds long before I met him this past summer on his visit from Germany. Who knows if my memories crossed wires with hers or Matisse told me too on an adventure of these night creatures, but one way or the other we were both struck by songbirds and know of their night'n'gale tendencies and I hope that you are too.
Coo-coo-coo
