Milo, age 2, loves birds. He and I are hanging out together tonight while Mark takes Oscar skiing, so it seemed like a good evening to check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Online Bird Guide. When I showed him the page, Milo pointed to the pictures just to the right — the little group of four — and said, "Itza wood duck." He’s right, there it is, in the lower right hand corner. (For that, I have Hannah to thank, because she bought a few little stuffed birds with bird calling chips inside, including the wood duck — here’s some for sale. Note the wood duck.)
The way this goes is, I show him a bird and tell him the name. He repeats it. Then I play the sound, and while the sound is playing, he shouts "Honk!" or "Birdie birdie birdie!" or "Drink your tea!" — according to whichever it sounds the most like, no matter what sort of bird it is. (He has learned that the Canada goose says honk and the northern cardinal says birdie birdie birdie and the eastern towhee says drink your tea.)
As we listen and look, I’m hoping to find the identity of the mysterious "Erin bird" that kept startling me when we went camping with several adults and children last summer here in southeastern Minnesota. Whatever it is, it sounds exactly like a small child shrieking "Erin!!!!" which is guaranteed to get my attention. I figure it’s probably a bird of prey — certainly not a sparrowy type of call. The red-tailed hawk is a strong possibility, because they are very common here, but the call doesn’t sound exactly right to me. (If you have RealPlayer, you can listen to the call by clicking on the multimedia link partway down the page for each bird.)
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