Today is Victoria Day, known around here as Monday of “The May Long Weekend”—the weekend when we’re supposed to go camping or plant the garden or finish the spring yard clean-up. I’m doing none of that, and it’s not because the weather isn’t cooperating, but because I have a doozy of a cold. You know, the “not all that sick, but might as well be because I’m so miserable” kind of cold.
On top of that, a snipe looking for a girlfriend kept me up all night. When I was a teenager, we took city slickers on snipe hunts and then laughed at them for believing this mythical bird existed. Turns out the joke’s on us, because there really are snipes (see video) and at least one has decided to make his home in the marsh behind my house so he can get back at me for not believing in him.
The hu-hu-hu-hu-hu at the begining of the sound file here is a winnowing snipe. Yes, it is that loud, and maybe louder. That’s not a vocalization, but a sound made by vibrating tail feathers—a sound heard, supposedly, at dusk or dawn. Unfortunately for me, at this time of the year, dusk and dawn make up almost the whole night.
A snipe hunt is sounding like a good idea right now. Lucky for the noisy bird, a nap sounds even better.
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 9:57PM 