https://jerrydennis.net/1/post/2011/03/this-bountiful-world-the-meandering-path-with-curious-digressions-and-collected-abundances-included-of-a-book-in-progress.html Author Fri, 01 Apr 2022 21:03:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 https://jerrydennis.net/1/post/2011/03/this-bountiful-world-the-meandering-path-with-curious-digressions-and-collected-abundances-included-of-a-book-in-progress.html#comment-154 Jerry Dennis Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:47:58 +0000 http://jerrydennis.net/?p=543#comment-154 P.J. and Andy — Isn’t it interesting how many associations the songs carry for us? And of course the more birds we know, the more and richer the memories that adhere to them. I’m not very accomplished at identifying songs, but I’ve birded with people who are amazing. Most amazing of all was Roger Tory Peterson, with whom I spent an unforgettable day in Central Park in May 1995 (I think). Not only did he know every bird we heard, he could identify songs that were so distant that I couldn’t even hear them.

]]> https://jerrydennis.net/1/post/2011/03/this-bountiful-world-the-meandering-path-with-curious-digressions-and-collected-abundances-included-of-a-book-in-progress.html#comment-153 Andrew Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:11:35 +0000 http://jerrydennis.net/?p=543#comment-153 Wish I was up in Traverse City! While we do get our fair share of melodious song birds it’s somehow not the same as I remember growing up. I have passed on to our daughter the joy of listing to birds and trying to learn their songs. Our favorite is immitating the cardinal and trying to make them answer your call. I remember my Pop-Pop, my mom’s father, teaching my brother and I in his back yard in East Lansing and what fun we had walking through the woods and listening. We would always try to see if we could accurately immitate the call an answer back. We also had the Peterson Field guide and tried to identify the birds we couldn’t see by their calls. On many summer nights when we were forced to go to sleep while the sun made your room to bright to sleep, I remember listening through my open window to the outside noises. Despite the room being as bright as day, I remember often dozing off to the sound of singing birds (mostly Robins I think but perhaps a Brown Thrasher or two!) that made a long soft song of almost random sounding notes that were all over the scale. It’s pattern was harmonious enough to put me to sleep on many a night. When we lived out by Long Lake my dad once claimed to have identified the “gray catbird” by it’s cat like call. My brother and I never saw it so took him at his word. It is possible our cat at the time, “Sophie” (which my Mom adored but my Dad only tolerated), who was a consumate hunter, wasn’t flattered by the mockery and did the bird in because we never saw or heard the call again. Glad you posted this..it certainly brought back good memories.

]]> https://jerrydennis.net/1/post/2011/03/this-bountiful-world-the-meandering-path-with-curious-digressions-and-collected-abundances-included-of-a-book-in-progress.html#comment-152 Pamela Grath Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:38:12 +0000 http://jerrydennis.net/?p=543#comment-152 Jerry, you make me long to hear a marsh sparrow. I recognize very few birdsongs but thrill to them just the same. The first I learned as an adult was that of the song sparrow. After many years, whenever I hear a song sparrow the song carries me back to my garden between Delton and Hickory Corners. I feel the sun on my shoulders and see my cat stalking in the tall grass while my son runs the hose to make puddles to lure the cabbage butterflies. Did birds give music to human beings, do you suppose? Would we have it without them?

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