Birds chirping...at midnight??

poshspice

I'm on Pacific btwn Vandy and Underhill...noticed in past 2 wks that the back of my bldg becomes the Amazon, with calls of the wild from about 4-5 different birds. They always start up around 12, 12:30 am. Isn't it odd for birds to be out, hyped up like that in the middle of the night? They are full on chirping, LOUD - like mating calls back and forth. One bird uses a bunch of different ones until someone responds back! Bird lovers, help me.

Not necessarily complaining...it can be nice to fall asleep to. Makes me feel like I'm on tropical vacation until the B45 shows up.

MOD

Mocking birds. I hate the bastards.

poshspice

Yep, Google search confirmed it. What I've learned in the past 5 minutes:

1. It's prob not 4-5 birds like I thought - more like 1 or 2, since they imitate other birds' chirps (and cell phones).
2. Apparently, this time of year they are hormonal and out on the prowl like sluts.
3. The lights from the gigantic storage bldg causes them to stay up and protect turf.


Ah, spring in Brooklyn.

daver

poshspice wrote: Yep, Google search confirmed it. What I've learned in the past 5 minutes:

1. It's prob not 4-5 birds like I thought - more like 1 or 2, since they imitate other birds' chirps (and cell phones).
2. Apparently, this time of year they are hormonal and out on the prowl like sluts.
3. The lights from the gigantic storage bldg causes them to stay up and protect turf.


Ah, spring in Brooklyn.

Lose number one and you can apply those points to all sorts of things.

berit

They are fairly loud in my backyard too. I had no idea about mockingbirds. Very interesting!

MOD

Yeah, just wait till they mimic car alarms. Yup, I love that sound at my window at 2am.

rockhound

Subject: Beeping birds

Another bird you may hear in the early evening is the Nighthawk, which is migrating through the area at this time of year. Its call is a beeping, insect like sound. Very repetitive, beep......beep.....beep....!!!!

Usually they are flying after insects and sometimes you can see them as they dip under the streetlights.

underhill_mt

They have a cycle of chirps they go through when looking for a mate. They stop once they've mated. My husband's folks had one in their front tree a few years back. My mother-in-law would wake up in the middle of the night pleading for any creature in the neighborhood to come and screw the damn bird.

littleredmenace

poshspice wrote: Yep, Google search confirmed it. What I've learned in the past 5 minutes:

1. It's prob not 4-5 birds like I thought - more like 1 or 2, since they imitate other birds' chirps (and cell phones).
2. Apparently, this time of year they are hormonal and out on the prowl like sluts.
3. The lights from the gigantic storage bldg causes them to stay up and protect turf.


Ah, spring in Brooklyn.

I love the idea of slutty mockingbirds. Everybody wants some, it seems.

alafairnadia

more reasons to have cats.

littleredmenace

Ah, don't hate just because birds want to get laid. :P

underhill_mt

LittleRedMenace wrote: Ah, don't hate just because birds want to get laid. :P

I'm thinking about what it would be like if every human who wanted to get some talked about it incessantly until the deed was done. "Hey, do me! No, really, I'm hard up. Please! I need to get laid!"

sweet tea

^you're telling me you don't know anyone like that? i sure do.

i can't believe no one has pointed out that the mockingbirds have been in the neighborhood longer than all you newly-arrived whiners, who move in and suddenly expect older residents to change everything to suit you.

alafairnadia

sweet tea wrote: ^you're telling me you don't know anyone like that? i sure do.

i can't believe no one has pointed out that the mockingbirds have been in the neighborhood longer than all you newly-arrived whiners, who move in and suddenly expect older residents to change everything to suit you.

you mean I can't negotiate with the mockingbirds?

MOD

sweet tea wrote: ^you're telling me you don't know anyone like that? i sure do.

i can't believe no one has pointed out that the mockingbirds have been in the neighborhood longer than all you newly-arrived whiners, who move in and suddenly expect older residents to change everything to suit you.

And let me add that I'm fed up with these pigeons hanging out and my stoop, making a mess and pretending like they own the streets!

god

Mocking birds and pigeons where here way before you people showed up.
If you don't like the sounds they make, move to MARS.

underhill_mt

GOD wrote: Mocking birds and pigeons where here way before you people showed up.
If you don't like the sounds they make, move to MARS.

You think PH is bad for newbie-bashing? Mars has roving groups of native Martians just waiting for fresh blood to move in.

jeffrey

Just wait 'til they thaw.

Man, will they be pissed.

daver

Gowanus Lounge

nomad

I hear them too - and love it!

But if they start mimicking cell phone ringtones and car alarms I might not be so happy...

hamilton

After they are done mating,then comes the real problem, Mocking Birds with strollers.

daver

Hamilton wrote: After they are done mating,then comes the real problem, Mocking Birds with strollers.

And Vespas.

hamilton

and before you know it they'll start to congregate at Union Hall for the early bird special

daver

Hamilton wrote: and before you know it they'll start to congregate at Union Hall for the early bird special

fuckin peckers

hamilton

Their enough to put anyone in a fowl mood.(':oops:')

brooklynred87

I've been living in my building for 10 years now and I don't remember the dawn chorus as loud or persistent (or happening at all, for that matter) as it's been this season.

In a way, it's nice. In another way, I'd really like to be able to sleep at 4am.

Ah well. Any appearance of Mother Nature in the Big City is welcome.

che

This time of year—in the summer—you're also likely to hear the light twittering of chimney swifts looping overhead, and the nasally `beeep' of nighthawks, both eating aerial insects. Most of the bird noise you hear outside your window at any given moment is house sparrows (which were introduced to North America from Europe in 1852, incidentally, to ... Brooklyn! [reference])

daver

Daily News

dailyheights

poshspice, as Daver says, you got quoted, anonymously, in the Daily News. I asked them to quote you by name.

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=437623#437623

caseopele

I heard one last night in Crown Heights! I was walking my dogs on Bergen between Franklin and Classon when I heard a bird chirping. It was after midnight but it sounded like a rainforest, it was so cool!

littleredmenace

I'll take birds making love noises over the constant Reggaeton on my block any day.