mpemburn
Member
Hi all,
We have a puzzler here. My wife and I moved recently to our new home in Harford County, MD where we are completely surrounded by woods, most of it second growth, with a sizeable stream nearby and about an acre of clearing. Both of us have been avid birders for many years but we have been completely stumped by the bird that sings in the night.
Up until now, I had thought the only night singing bird around these parts was a Mockingbird. When we lived in the city, the un-paired males would be going all night. Out here, we haven't seen any mocking thrushes at all and, in any case, the bird we're hearing is quite different from any mocker.
We've heard the song at times from dusk to 2:00-3:00 in the morning. It usually sings once and then shuts up. The song starts with an Ovenbird-like "teacher-teacher-teacher" (though much more softly) then goes into a jumble of whispery notes and ends with a "quit quit" similar to the alarm call of a Wood Thrush. The times we've heard it close by, it seemed to be on or near the ground. One evening last week while we were out walking at dusk, we saw two small, brown birds chasing across the lane and as they disappeared into the undergrowth, we heard the song of the night bird.
Any idea at all what this might be?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
We have a puzzler here. My wife and I moved recently to our new home in Harford County, MD where we are completely surrounded by woods, most of it second growth, with a sizeable stream nearby and about an acre of clearing. Both of us have been avid birders for many years but we have been completely stumped by the bird that sings in the night.
Up until now, I had thought the only night singing bird around these parts was a Mockingbird. When we lived in the city, the un-paired males would be going all night. Out here, we haven't seen any mocking thrushes at all and, in any case, the bird we're hearing is quite different from any mocker.
We've heard the song at times from dusk to 2:00-3:00 in the morning. It usually sings once and then shuts up. The song starts with an Ovenbird-like "teacher-teacher-teacher" (though much more softly) then goes into a jumble of whispery notes and ends with a "quit quit" similar to the alarm call of a Wood Thrush. The times we've heard it close by, it seemed to be on or near the ground. One evening last week while we were out walking at dusk, we saw two small, brown birds chasing across the lane and as they disappeared into the undergrowth, we heard the song of the night bird.
Any idea at all what this might be?
Thanks in advance,
Mark