I experienced a similar situation in early March a couple of years ago near=
Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I was recording near a friend's farm for a documenta=
ry, and heard the redwings from about a quarter mile away. There were a cou=
ple hundred of them gathered in a large maple across the road from my frien=
d's farm. They were all males, so I attributed their behavior to 'assessing=
the competition' before the start of mating season (I'm no ornithologist).
I posted an excerpt in the member files area: winterredwingexcerpt.mp3. I e=
specially like their response to the approaching truck.
BTW, the geography was pretty similar to what you described, Robert. Top of=
a hill, near a wetland (on my friend's farm). Temperature was around 15F, =
midday.
Paul Dickinson
--- In "Robert Heckendorn" <>=
wrote:
>
> I live at the top of a small hill in a residential neighborhood in Moscow=
, Idaho (North Central Idaho). I live about 1/4 mile from a stream and ab=
out 1/2 mile from a wetland. We have been having record setting low tempe=
ratures the last couple of weeks. We have also been having a flock of red =
wing black birds show up every evening about 30 min before sunset. They s=
tart with a single bird and slowly the trees fill and they start singing in=
tricate songs. It is like a hundred conversations at a loud party. In my n=
eighbor's tree I counted 120 birds at the very top singing away. This hasn=
't happened in my 10 years here that I recall. Is this normal? Maybe our =
red wing blackbird population has increased over the years. Maybe the cold=
is increasing the pressure to flock. Any thoughts or comments?
>
> I have a couple of bad recordings of their vocalizations but it is a neig=
hborhood in town so their is *lots* of man-made noise. Their songs sound l=
ike the sounds they make in the wetlands but amplified by being so close to=
gether and in such numbers (probably around 200 birds).
>
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