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capri0mni1) A modern wondertale by E. Nesbit that I heard told on the radio, this morning, illustrating why she is one of my favorite writers: Melisande, or: Long and Short Division (1901)
2) The other day, I swore I heard a man whistling right outside my house, out in my yard, just the other side of my office wall. And at first, it creeped me out. It took a few more repetitions for me to realize it was a bird, but only because it was just a three note phrase of descending pitch, rather than anything that sounded like a fragment of popular song. Also, it kept coming from the same spot, as if a bird had picked a perch and was declaring his territory. If it were a human -- even a human creep who was deliberately lurking, I'd expect him him to move around at least a little bit. And besides, given the time of year, and the time of day (the height of afternoon), "Bird" is just more likely. But even after all that reasoning, it still sounded So Human -- the timbre, pitch range, interval, phrasing -- everything about it sounded like an adult male human's whistle.
Now I'm wondering if it were a mockingbird. And if it were a mockingbird who was imitating a human "voice", without actually imitating a human song, note-for-note, do mockingbirds do the same with other birdsong they "imitate," and include in their mating calls? Are mockingbirds doing with sound what bower birds do with bits of collected "Stuff," and demonstrating individual creativity?
Has anyone done studies for Mockingbird intelligence, as have been done for corvids?
3) We'll be getting up-close pictures of Ceres, Soon! *Squee!*
4) Watch this space for progress on my Camp NaNoWriMo project.
I should get back to that now. ...
2) The other day, I swore I heard a man whistling right outside my house, out in my yard, just the other side of my office wall. And at first, it creeped me out. It took a few more repetitions for me to realize it was a bird, but only because it was just a three note phrase of descending pitch, rather than anything that sounded like a fragment of popular song. Also, it kept coming from the same spot, as if a bird had picked a perch and was declaring his territory. If it were a human -- even a human creep who was deliberately lurking, I'd expect him him to move around at least a little bit. And besides, given the time of year, and the time of day (the height of afternoon), "Bird" is just more likely. But even after all that reasoning, it still sounded So Human -- the timbre, pitch range, interval, phrasing -- everything about it sounded like an adult male human's whistle.
Now I'm wondering if it were a mockingbird. And if it were a mockingbird who was imitating a human "voice", without actually imitating a human song, note-for-note, do mockingbirds do the same with other birdsong they "imitate," and include in their mating calls? Are mockingbirds doing with sound what bower birds do with bits of collected "Stuff," and demonstrating individual creativity?
Has anyone done studies for Mockingbird intelligence, as have been done for corvids?
3) We'll be getting up-close pictures of Ceres, Soon! *Squee!*
4) Watch this space for progress on my Camp NaNoWriMo project.
I should get back to that now. ...
