Fieldfare

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

We have a clematis growing beside our porch. A couple of days ago we noticed a pair of filefares (turdus pilaris) building a nest in the clematis. Now the female is brooding. When I first noticed the nest it contained two eggs. Now I don't know how many they are, because I don't want to disturb the bird.

At first it flew away every time we opened the door, but now it just sits there watching us if we are careful not to make any sudden loud noises. In about two weeks we will see how many birds will hatch.

In Finnish the fieldfare is called räkättirastas, which adequately describes it's sound. In Swedish it has many names: björktrast (birch thrush), snötrast (snow thrush) and most common in in Ostrobothnia, skvattertrast (jabber thrush), which also describes how it sounds. As you can se from the Swedish, Finnish and Latin names the fieldfare is a thrush.

Sune

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

Sune,
How wonderful. I just love when I get the opportunity to observe nature closeup. Thank you for sharing. My clematis has just begun flowering here in PA.
Karen

[kivinen1 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kivinen1]

What is that bird singing?

OK Sune,

Maybe you can answer this.

I live in Vancouver, Washington.

In the last several nights, a bird has been singing all night long. We have no street lights or house lights that would make a bird think it was daylight.

I can remember having this same bird song singing all night long in the Nedervetil / Terjärv area... usually beginning in the month of May or maybe June (in Finland). We never have as long of days as there are in Österbotten, but we do still have a fair amount of daylight/ twilight.

This "bird song" is not ugly, but it is not very "pretty" either. It is usually a series of 3 or 4 tweets and then a series of 3 or 4 of some other song.

I know that it is NOT a mockingbird, because I know what different songs they can sing... but I have NOT seen this little birdie.

Any guess?

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

I do not know birds very well, but could it be a blackbird? Nightingales also sing at night, but you don't have them as far north as Terijärvi. Do we have any ornithologists among us here at the forum?

Sune

[Hasse Andtbacka Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Hasse Andtbacka]

Birdsong at night

Hi,
the bird here in Österbotten is probably a Song Trush, Turdus philomelos, Taltrast. They sing during the night, in the way you said.
These days the trush chorus is very strong, but after a couple of weeks the smaller warblers will take over the concert.
Hasse A

[kivinen1 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kivinen1]

Hi,
the bird here in Österbotten is probably a Song Trush, Turdus philomelos, Taltrast. They sing during the night, in the way you said.
These days the trush chorus is very strong, but after a couple of weeks the smaller warblers will take over the concert.
Hasse A

Ah haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,

Hasse, I think you are correct.

I think that we call this bird Catharus ustulatus, or one of it's very close cousins.

(some other turd bird ) here is what Wiki says about the cousin called a Wood Thrush:

[QUOTE]The Wood Thrush has been reported to have one of the most beautiful songs of North American birds.[11] American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote:

Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of Heaven are not shut against him.

While the female is not known to sing, the male has a unique song that has three parts. The first subsong component is often inaudible unless the listener is close, and consists of two to six short, low-pitched notes such as bup, bup, bup. The middle part is a loud phrase often written ee-oh-lay, and the third part is a ventriloquial, trill-like phrase of non-harmonic pairs of notes given rapidly and simultaneously.

The male is able to sing two notes at once, which gives its song an ethereal, flute-like quality.[12] Each individual bird has its own repertoire based on combinations of variations of the three parts. Songs are often repeated in order. The bup, bup, bup phrase is also sometimes used as a call, which is louder and at a greater frequency when the bird is agitated.[3] The Wood Thrush also use a tut, tut to signal agitation.[9] The nocturnal flight call is an emphatic buzzing heeh[QUOTE]

I won't say that it is THAT beautiful though,... at least not at 3 in the wee hours of the morning!
Yes, I am sure that this is the one. And yes, in a few weeks the sopranos will begin.

The heinasirkka won't start until late July.

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

Soon we will hear the flapping of small wings. The eggs have hatched.

Sune

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

But there is a danger. A small squirrel is lurking nearby.

Sune

[kivinen1 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kivinen1]

Squirrel

Just put out a small bowl of pontikka, the squirrel will have fun, and forget all about the eggs.
(what kind of squirrels are in Finland, I don't remember, big tail or thin tail?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0iCh9IFgfs (the videographer sounds like he got into the pontikka)

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

The videographer spoke Russian or polish, at least to my ear. The smacking sound he made imitates the squirrel's warning sound.

We have two kinds of squirrels in Finland: the ordinary one with a thick tail. It is silver gray in the winter and brown in the summer. Then we have teh Siberian flying squirrel, which is nocturnal and seldom seen. It is gray and has a short thin tail. I have been been in very close contact with them as a child, but that is quite another story, which a will tell later.

Sune

[kivinen1 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kivinen1]

yes, Polish or Russian or even Latvian. I don't know why they call the video Suomi, maybe their idea of a joke?

Even though, he still sounds like he got into the pontikka!

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

The video could be filmed in Finland. We have a lot of Baltic and polish construction workers doing gigs here. And, as you probably know there are a lot of Russians living in the Baltic countries.

Sune