Walked out of the back of the Lab at noon and first bird was an EASTERN BLUEBIRD M, vocalizing 'qwer-wert' repeatedly, a plaintive two-note phrase. That was interesting but the remarkable behavior was when he flew from a 'normal' twig perch over the trail and stuck it on the side of a tree's vertical trunk (with rough bark) just like a woodpecker or actually more like a nuthatch, as he was facing down at about 45 deg. He seemed very comfortable there for the 10-15 sec he stayed, watching me, then he flew again to a twig perch. He wasn't being pursued and had numerous normal perches available. I can't say I've ever seen this behavior from a thrush. Have you?
He was soon joined by a second M and the two counter-called the same two-note phrase for a while. ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
