50. Cardinals awaking—13 mornings to explore!
7. When to Sing, and How
How birds go to roost and awake
From page 112 in the book.
Cardinals awaking—-13 mornings to explore! For 13 mornings during late April and early May 2018, I recorded how a male northern cardinal left the night roost and began his day (♫464-476; see also p. 19 for an example of an awaking male and female cardinal). Oh, the questions that come to mind! When does he begin relative to sunrise? Does he always begin with those sharp chip notes? With which of his dozen or so songs (p. 89) does he begin? Does he have favorites? What kind of a warm-up is involved before he sings with full gusto? How often does he match the songs of birds in the background? (Those singers could be neighboring males or his female partner; it was too dark to know.) If matching occurs, who matches whom—that is, who leads and who follows in the matching game? How many different songs does he offer over these 13 mornings? Do passing cars influence his singing? What else can you hear and learn from this male cardinal? These 13 mornings are a bonanza, but then I wonder how any patterns might have changed as nesting got underway, during late May and into June, through July.
Song examples:
Thirteen examples during April and May 2018 of how a male northern cardinal greeted his day from the crabapple tree in my yard in Hatfield, Massachusetts. He most likely roosted in the nearby spruce tree, then flew to the crabapple, his flight audible on several mornings. Two recordings are in stereo, so the left and right tracks can be used to locate the singing bird in space (♫464, ♫467); theother 11 are monaural (recorded on Swift recorders; see book page 179), so that relative loudness of the song is the only clue as to who is singing it. Sometimes he stays in his awaking tree for a few minutes, sometimes far longer; on occasion he competes for airtime with a loud robin, or with vehicles on the nearby road.
♫464:
♫465:
♫466:
♫467:
♫468:
♫469:
♫470:
♫471:
♫472:
♫473:
♫474:
♫475:
♫476:
| Recording | Type of recording | Begin time am | Sunrise,(A.M.) | Date, (2018) | Duration, Min:sec |
| 464 | stereo | 6:07 | 6:34 | April 1 | 3:32 |
| 465 | monaural | 5:57 | 6:27 | April 5 | 8:00 |
| 466 | monaural | 5:54 | 6:27 | April 6 | 3:49 |
| 467 | stereo | 5:45 | 6:15 | April 12 | 17:05 |
| 468 | monaural | 5:38 | 6:12 | April 14 | 8:03 |
| 469 | monaural | 5:42 | 6:10 | April 15 | 7:20 |
| 470 | monaural | 5:38 | 6:05 | April 18 | 4:35 |
| 471 | monaural | 5:24 | 5:53 | April 26 | 18:38 |
| 472 | monaural | 5:08 | 5:42 | May 4 | 4:21 |
| 473 | monaural | 5:01 | 5:41 | May 5 | 6:06 |
| 474 | monaural | 5:04 | 5:40 | May 6 | 6:23 |
| 475 | monaural | 4:56 | 5:38 | May 7 | 11:00 |
| 476 | monaural | 4:57 | 5:37 | May 8 | 4:38 |