another birdy post

i have a little postscriptum to last saturdays post about the crow talk in my backyard.

yesterday, when i was waking up, i heard something i had never heard before anywhere in my life. a gull was trying to talk to a jackdaw. it was making the friendliest noises i have ever heard a seagull make — most of the time they are really just screeching and shouting away madly. but this one made short, soft and questioning “haa? haa?” noises, i swear it sounded like it was trying to befriend that jackdaw. the jackdaw was doing short, agitated clicks and chuckles, not unfriendly but definitely disconcerted. it went on like this for a while before one of them must have given up and flown away and silence followed.
i started wondering, what would make a gull want to talk to a jackdaw? was it lost? was it trying to ask for good places to find food? do gulls get lonely, or bored?

i have no idea why i always have to compare the behaviour of birds to that of humans, and vice versa. oh yes, i do it the other way round, too. a few months after i met grischa i started making up this story that would make a good illustrated children’s book, about the raven and the owl who fall in love one day at dusk when they are both awake, but later experience trouble spending time together because one of them is always asleep. that’s our story. well, we have adjusted more than these birds would probably be able to, and on most days we see quite a lot of each other. but we’re still very different kinds of birds.

a large flock of starlings arrived this morning, probably to settle down in the relatively warm climate of cologne for the winter. it doesn’t feel that warm to me. i just can’t decide if i want to migrate or hibernate.

~ by bine on November 29, 2007.