What I'm Reading #36

It's not really "reading" so much as it is listening! I got this book at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh during my recent visit. It has wonderful information about 75 of the most common North American birds. All but sixteen are Passerine (songbirds). AND there is a built in speaker system with songs of each, sometimes more than one type per species for a total of 132 distinctive vocalizations.

And here's the BEST part. I play the song of the Grey Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, on my backyard deck and she comes and sings back! The more I play it, the closer she gets to me in an effort to discover how the hell I can sing to her!

We've long been friends in my garden, and when she otherwise has shown up and shown interest in me, I've attempted to respond to her with my own whistles that mimic her song, but she must be thinking, "Damn, he's gotten good!"