Something is up with one of my Mockingbird neighbors...

[capri0mni]

It's just the start of Autumn. It's also still dark enough outside that the streetlamps are still on.

And yet, I hear a mockingbird, somewhere close -- sounds like he (?) might be in the holly tree just outside my office window.*

He's "Scrolling through" his repertoire of different bird calls -- loudly. But, unlike the "Let me show off my skills & endurance" songs that mockingbirds perform in the spring, this one has no quality that I would consider "Musical." And besides, I can't remember ever hearing any mockingbird call like that after early June.

... And, in the time it's taken me to type this, it's gone quiet, and the streetlamps have gone out.

Still, I hope everything's okay for my feathery neighbors.

*The berries, are full size, now. And are turning a darker shade of green. Before long, they'll be truly red, and ready for their Christmas card closeups.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I have a night-singing robin neighbour sometimes. Strange but lovely. The rowan outside my window has berried early and enthusiastically this year so our local immigrant redwings (from Siberia?) haven't arrived to strip it yet. The haws are beginning to show red too.ght-singing robin neighbour sometimes. Strange but lovely.

[capri0mni]

This was not what I would call "singing."

This was calling.

The springtime performances, which the cynically-minded biologist narrowly decides is for declaring territory and securing mates... Now that is singing. Each of the calls and sounds from other species (Which, apparently, is not really mimicry, since it fools no one but us humans), during that time, are grouped together in twos threes and (occasionally) fives, to make musical phrases, arranged for contrast and balance (Yes, there have been times when I've applauded a particularly nice composition; personally, I think mockingbirds do with sound what bower birds do with collected objects).

This was not that. I got the distinct impression that this bird was up there shouting "Hey! Hey! Hey!" in half a dozen "languages" as loudly as he could...

Avian nightmare, perhaps?

[spiralsheep]

Around here that sort of bird calling is almost always caused by the presence of a cat (which is why I didn't mention it to the cat-lover in my first comment! ;-P ). I dunno if you have any other predators round there but one of them was probably in the vicinity, no?

[capri0mni]

Oh, no need to pussyfoot around me (sorry, couldn't resist).

I do love cats. And that means loving cats as-they-are, which includes acknowledging their predatory nature. Our cats are confined to the footprint of our house, but there are others who are free-roaming (much to the annoyance of Lily and Daisy).

In the meantime, this reminds me of a science/animal post I meant to make nearly a month ago. Here's a link to the source material for your enjoyment, in the meantime.

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/434400838/warning-calls-decoded-squirrels-take-up-bird-alarms-to-foil-the-enemy

[spiralsheep]

That's interesting. I've used owls' territorial behaviour to count how many are in the vicinity. I've never noticed squirrels making bird noises, although I have seen them join in alarm-calling with birds when there's a cat about. Perhaps grey squirrels haven't integrated enough here yet for birds to see them as anything other than potential predators. I've never lived anywhere the squirrel population is predominantly red squirrels, who've been around longer and are supposedly less predatory towards birds.

[capri0mni]

Yes. I imagine it does make a difference, whether the mammals and birds in question co-evolved together, or not. I was simply heart-warmed by the story for being a counterweight to the meme: Nature raw, in tooth and claw.

Turns out its more like: Nature: all for one and one for all.

(I know that's not really analogous, but it's a decent rhyme match)

[spiralsheep]

I've seen mixed mobs of birds go after a buzzard or sparrowhawk but as soon as they've driven off the top predator then the mob will turn on the next perceived danger such as ravens/crows, or back to territorial competition with their rival species, so their co-operation was always strictly limited.

Humans are capable of being both the most selfish and most altruistic animals ime.

[capri0mni]

Truth. Always More often than not, though, counterweights to oversimplifying slogans are beneficial...

Oh, dear. I've failed totally to talk like a pirate, today, haven't I?

...Aye?

[spiralsheep]

It's not Talk Like A Pirate Day today. Hence my note for next year about KARRL MARRX (you can tell he's a pirate because of the beard and egalitarianism!).

[capri0mni]

*forehead slap* ... Do I at least get a point for remembering it was a two-digit day in September... and vaguely remembering that 9 is one of them?

[spiralsheep]

You are the only author and judge of your own internal points, bb. Personally, I get 10/10 just for getting out of bed!

[capri0mni]

10/10 and a gold star!

[spiralsheep]

Gold stars for getting out of bed, 2015: 273/273!

[capri0mni]

\o/

[spiralsheep]

Not that we can't Talk Like A Pirate any day we please, obv. /anarchist piracy

[redsixwing]

Mockingbird! <3
I do hope all's okay with your neighbor. They're so cool.

(My mother's friend once taught one to whistle Dixie, and was vastly annoyed when, as a mockingbird would, it did it over, and over, and over again.)

[capri0mni]

LOL. Never give a mockingbird an earworm...

...

The early mockingbird gets the earworm?

Seriously, even though "Intelligence" in birds seems only to be acknowledged in parrots and corvids, I definitely believe that mockingbirds are at least as sophisticated in "language" and communication.

[redsixwing]

>>The early mockingbird gets the earworm?

BAHAHAHA. YES.

They're pretty awesome. I like your bowerbird comparison - it seems entirely apt. (I heard one once mimic a hawk, trying to frighten away another bird that was harassing it. If I recall correctly, it worked.)

[capri0mni]

And one afternoon, early in the spring, I heard some crows cawing while in flight, and I looked around to see if I could match bird to sound. I quickly spotted a pair of crows, but they were perched on a streetlamp, and were not the source of the sound... So I looked around some more, and saw the pair of mockingbirds swooping in from some distance, and that was where the sound was coming from.

...Now, the usual explanation for animal calls is that they're just sounds propelled by emotion: fear, anger, pain, sexual arousal, etc.

But, these were mockingbirds targeting crows with their actions, and their "vocalizations" just happened to sound like crows? No way do I buy that it was anything but deliberate.

They were tailoring their message to their audience.

That's language. Period.

[redsixwing]

Oh, that's just cool!

[capri0mni]

I certainly think so!

It's one of the reasons I've become increasingly frustrated with the perennial popular science question: "What makes us human?" Every time we're told that we have this special magical power attribute that makes us unique among all other life: our ability to reason, learn, make tools, create art (Bower birds), use language, feel emotions, have a sense of justice, plan for the future, remember the past, have altruistic motives, etc. (etc. ... etc. ...), it turns out we're not so unique after all.

So why are we so obsessed with having that One Special Gift that puts us On Top?

Humans == the Mary-Sue Species.

....and rant-mode slightly on.

[redsixwing]

Guh, yes. It's not like we're even the only hominid! Nonono, we just have to be SUPER SPECIAL and, like, CHOSEN BY GOD. Because obvs.

It was pretty entertaining watching people get upset about Homo naledi because of placing their dead together, but every time someone posts an article like that, I'll be over here rubbing my hands together and cackling as their sense of superiority falls apart.

Re: ....and rant-mode slightly more on.

[capri0mni]

Well, what really angers me about that question is that the way it's framed obscures what it is we're really asking, which is:

"What unique attribute can we lay claim to that we can use to justify the exploitation of life on this planet?" or, the more slogan-y version: "Whence the might that gives us the right?"

And there will likely always be people who refuse to accept the ultimate (probable) answer: "There is none!"

And also, reducing the "True essence of what makes us fully human" to list of check-boxes (whether that includes 'walks upright,' 'uses language," "can do long division," etc.) means that there will always members of our own species that don't have that "magic pixie dust." And that gives society license to treat them as subhuman...

Re: ....and rant-mode slightly more on.

[redsixwing]

That's a really good point, and one I'll add to my usual set of arguments against Doing That (the ones that center around how we treat our neighboring species).

Re: ....and rant-mode slightly more on.

[capri0mni]

Hooray! This is really personal for me, because I have C.P., and don't walk erect (When I walk at all, it's with crutches, as a quadruped ;-)). And if it weren't for my mother resisting the hospital psychologist, when I was 2 (in 1966), I would very likely have ended up institutionalized as "Severely Retarded" because that was the psychologist's default assumption because my Brain is Different Than Normal (And even if I were retarded, I would not have deserved to be warehoused for life).

So I'm chortling with particular glee over the whole: "But -- but -- but -- how could they be smart enough to create such a difficult burial?! Their brains were so small!"

Yeah -- it's what I've been saying all along; There's more to understanding stuff than the hardware. Deal with it.

Re: ....and rant-mode slightly more on.

[redsixwing]

Whoof. Yeah, that's personal all right.

It's hard even to define software well by giving out a checklist of Things It Should Do - there's always fiddly bits and things that don't quite match, and "what this software should do" is quite a bit easier to define than "which beings do we need to care about," unless you take the obvious-and-very-difficult answer of "all of them, bro."

(And, I don't actually think anybody deserves to be warehoused for life, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

Ye-e-s. I'm filing this right in there with "how could [ancient H. sapiens] have built things we, the modern-and-obviously-superior DON'T UNDERSTAND?"

With an extra nose-tweak because H. naledi has the gall to not be H. sapiens. Moo hoo ha ha.

Re: ....and rant-mode slightly more on.

[capri0mni]

With an extra nose-tweak because H. naledi has the gall to not be H. sapiens.

Seriously!!

Like I said, upthread: We are the Mary-Sues of planet Earth:

The newcomers, who insist we're more important than everyone who came before, and everyone loves us (except the EVIL ones, who hate us) just because we're the extra-special sparkly snowflakes.

You want to know what sets humans apart from everything else? My guess is that: we're (probably) the only ones who feel the need to name ourselves "Sapiens."