First of yard year EASTERN TOWHEE showed up today (W Meadow Dr Lansing) singing his head off but with an unusual (and at first baffling) added strong second syllable that challenged my memorized pattern to something at first unidentifiable: drink-a-you-TEEE or drink-you-your-TEEE; the trill was flatter, and less upscale than I remembered so I had to get a visual on him to verify it wasn’t some really aberrant song sparrow or other mystery.
On top of that, last year’s 1st Towhee was Apr 23 and 2012’s was Apr 26 so he’s very early for this location. Another item of interest: he sang two upsweep notes while foraging (after he stopped singing). At first I was sure there were 2 birds one responding to the other from about 10’ away. But after I found him and watched him, I could see he was throwing his voice: the first note was a few semitones higher and really seemed to come from a distance away, then the second note was more rooted at his location (on the ground). Fascinating trick. ChrisP -- 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/ --
