dog daze.....

carolina wren

"Relationships of ownership

They whisper in the wings

To those condemned to act accordingly

And wait for succeeding kings

And i try to harmonize with songs

The lonesome sparrow sings

There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden."

-- bob dylan

yes friends, the mighty/jaunty carolina wren takes center stage again.......so soon, y'know, since its last appearance only a few posts ago.............btw, i'm almost positive that the attached photo came from beth erwin, curator up at kalorama nature preserve up on the macon ridge north of monroe...........more on the wren, and on the "songs the lonesome sparrow sings" later......................................................................

     i'm not sure exactly when the "dog days of summer" kicks in..........late august maybe?.........story goes that they were so-named by the romans or greeks because one of the Canis (major? minor?) constellations dominates the sky during that period..............................being a southern man, i more get an image of dogs lazing on a front porch, immobilized for hours due to the intense heat.......................................anyway, i'm saying the dog daze are definitely here in south louisiana..............i was in new orleans two days ago, when this most recent heat wave kicked in.........standing still outdoors at noon was actually comfortable, as the wind was out of the dry west-northwest.............but as soon as you started walking, dude, the sweat poured.................................................ah, summer in new orleans........there, not only to the dogs go immobile, so do the humans...........the locals, anyway.............the tourists just cheerfully plow thru it, sunglasses, hangovers, whacky shirts & skirts.....................

     here at home in north lafayette parish i awoke late............like 8:30 late.............stepped out on the back porch as was immediately confronted with a brand-new wren song that went, no joke, "Span-i-ard Span-i-ard Span-i-ard!"................carolina wrens, you understand, possess a formidable repetoire; not up there with the mockingbird or starling or anything, but let's just go with notably impressive.

     the typical/default carolina wren chant goes like, "Tea-KettleTea-KettleTea-Kettle," and, slightly less frequently, its isotope, or mirror image, "Kettle-TeaKettle-TeaKettle-Tea!" which has a cool, rolling quality..........and then there are 2-3 additional chants that carolina wrens utter on a less frequent basis...............and lastly, there is my favorite, a plaintive, almost-somber, and somehow nostalgic -- aw.......let's just go with lonesome --  "pee-Doo pee-Doo pee-Doo" most often uttered in response to the first cool breezes in late summer..........fact i heard one doing it this morning in response to the "false cool" west-northwest breezes rolling around the top of a stout tropical high pressure dome centered to our immediate southwest..........................................................................

     and then there are the mid-to-late-summer "silly" songs that come out of the mouths of young wrens, and other birds as well............i think that's where this morning's  "Span-i-ard" thing came from.........these "silly"  songs probably represent 1) young birds hopping along the song learning curve, or 2) young birds simply having fun -- being young birds.................or both................or neither.....................................................

     that's the thing about humans trying to know stuff..........the more we know about anything, the more we realize we don't know........to the point, over time, where our knowledge seems "silly"........you know? 

     i've read a number of books about bird song........over the past several years friends have passed along a couple of really good ones.........there's one by donald kroodsma, an ornithologist who's dedicated his entire career to bird song....................his book, 'the singing life of birds,'  is very educational and pretty entertaining........his piece on the song of the winter wren, owner of a song so formidable that the ojibway named the bird, Ka-wa-miti-go-shi-que-na-go-mooch, is really good.

     then there's 'why birds sing,' by philosophy professor and pretty good jazz musician, david rothenberg, who got strung-out on bird song during "jamming" visits he and another musician repeatedly made to an aviary at a pennsylvania zoo...........right, they brought along their instruments and jammed away with the birds.....

   over time rothenberg traveled widely, chasing the most legendary avian songsters on the planet......his book is quite funny and (duh) pretty philosophical.......and musical too.....................

     kroodsma pushes forth numerous science-based theories that are indeed fascinating to consider, whereas rothenberg does as well, but more often from an edgier, "but-what-do-we-really-know?" perspective, bordering on sardonically funny...one of my favorite parts is where he considers the sheer musical inspiration of bird songs, goes into the science of the bird larnyx and how it differs from that of humans, and concludes that human attempts at mimicking even simpler bird songs generally moves along quite rapidly from folly to ridiculous to absurd............

     most of you i'm sure have seen the annual winners of a national bird-call competition on late night television shows.......even though they nail the songs (often it takes two people to render proper expression to a single bird song), they look - yes - absurd doing it. that's where the comedy comes in, you understand................and, thus dylan's, "i try to harmonize with songs the lonesome sparrow sings".......

      rothenberg ultimately answers the question, 'why birds sing?' with a meta-philosophical, 'because they can'...............which i really like..................in a way.........i guess in a philosphical or even spiritual sort of way...............................................yet there's that nagging nagging nagging 'why?' that follows me around like a plague..............it won't desist. i'm stuck in it.........so i try my best to harmonize the songs the lonesome sparrow sings................................hey, once again, dylan addresses these blues the best, with devastatingly accurate perspective (from 'tombstone blues'):

          "Where Ma Raney and Beethoven once unwrapped their bed roll

Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole

And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul

To the old folks home and the college.

I wish I could write you a melody so plain

That could hold you dear lady from going insane

That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain

Of your useless and pointless knowledge."

hmmmmmm......................yeah.......................................

     by now (11:50a.m.) the wren has fallen silent outside..........the heat of the day is beginning to bear down.......taking the wren's place is a young white-eyed vireo, practicing his complex-but-mechanical, literally churned-out, "CHIPfelloffthewhiteoak" song; a song which, as an adult, he'll whip out incessantly -- approaching ad nauseum, really -- through the hottest heat of the day..................in this way, white-eyed vireos become just as mesmerizing as an early-morning/late-evening  cicada chorus.............................................

     both kroodsma and rothenberg note that in some kinds of birds, the song must be learned by the youngster by listening to adult birds, whereas with others, the song is so hard-wired into their chromosomes that they are born knowing it.......................................................

unh...............................................................................WHY?