speaking of the balcony....

I made a new friend there today, señor Gray Catbird. I heard his very unusual call while sitting on the sofa during lunch, so I popped out to take a look. At first I thought it was a squirrel that was angry at the cats, and if you've ever heard an angry squirrel you know what sound I'm talking about. And on the tree directly in front of my balcony was a grey bird, screeching away. I grabbed my trusty A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America and thumbed through till I found him - a medium gray bird with black on the top of his head, orange-red under the tail, and he normally keeps his tail up. Is related to the Mockingbird and can imitate many other birds and even frogs. What I heard him doing was his call, not his song, but it was supercool. He hopped about for about 40 minutes, even sat on the picnic table and stared at me for a while, and was still there when I went back to work. Thanks for the lunch date Mr. Bird!

Below is a video that shows you what he sounded like... I thought the title was appropriate. I mean, don't we all scream before eating swiss cheese?