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Attention Seekers · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams in the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist, Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every week I share my observations and adventures with the human
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode addresses some of the noisy avian youth in our neighborhood.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: including my next book,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my previous five and
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: a half years of newsletters, as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to podcast The
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: kids started screaming the other night.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We first heard the cries on our walk near our house.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: They were high-pitched and short,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: lasting just a second at most, followed by a pause and a repeat.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then a break, or not.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the kid called several times in succession,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: other times a single call or two, then five to ten minutes of silence.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Although we looked, we couldn't trace the origin of the sound.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Back at home, we continued to hear the kid.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It turned dark, we got in bed, and still the calls pierced the air.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Finally,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I got up and tried to figure out who was making such a racket,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: disturbing my sought-after slumber.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Taking my phone, I walked out the back door in my pajamas and held it up.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: No calls.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now the kid turns quiet, but eventually the sounds returned.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: A red-tailed hawk was calling and kept calling for quite a while.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't complain.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Such a unique way to be serenaded to sleep in a city of 750,000.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like me, the kid was also an early riser, starting to call at 5am.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: As they say, there's a reason babies are so cute.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as the Merlin app informed me of the origin of the sound,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that the hawk was the only bird that could be making that call
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: in our neighborhood.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: No other bird produces such a succinctly pitched note.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: My reason for not figuring out sooner is that the caller was indeed a kid,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: a young red-tailed hawk who had probably recently fledged.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: In contrast to the short call of the kid, adults produced their longer, screaming,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's an unmistakable sound and the classic bird call of gazillions of movies.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: As I've noted in previous newsletters, red-tailed hawks are a very common urban bird.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I regularly see them when I cross over the freeway near our house,
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: leading to the light rail station at Northgate.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have long suspected that a pair of nests around here,
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: but have not found the nests, so it was exciting to hear the kid calling.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Calling, though, may not be the best word to describe the call.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed more of a cry for attention.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Mom, don't forget me!
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Once a young redtail has fledged and started to discover his or her world,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: the bird still relies on their parent for food.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not surprisingly,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: young birds are not good hunters or even very aware of how to hunt,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: as exemplified by the young northern harriers my pal Andy saw in Squimp.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here, in an urban environment,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: young birds such as red-tails face numerous perils,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: particularly if they try hunting along a road dominated by speeding walls of death.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The young red-tailed hawk is not the first youngster I've seen in Seattle.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Goslings and ducklings abound at Green Lake.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Black cat chickadees regularly nest in two nest boxes in our yard,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: and I've heard their cries for attention many times.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: My recent highlight was seeing a female common merganser
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: at Lake Washington carrying several babies on her back.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Although I haven't seen young robins, I have crum across the baby blue eggs.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: No clue if the eggs are where they are because of a nearby unseen nest or the result
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: of someone, such as a crow, finding a tasty tidbit.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Writing of crows, their youngs take my prize for the most whiny baby bird.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: One has been a regular visitor to our yard over the past several weeks.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot remember the first time I heard the call,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: but soon after the bird was out of the nest and calling,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: our neighbor saw the youngster on the ground.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: She told me that the bird didn't look well,
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: and so she picked the kid up,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: attempted to feed her some water, and placed the bird in a safe bush.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everything the neighbor did was wrong.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Forcing water into a young crow or even using a syringe
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: or dropper can kill young crows or most any baby bird,
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: and the parents were probably nearby and well aware of where the kid was.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, the young bird survived our neighbor's good but incorrect intentions.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: As the kid got older,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: the calling became more regular, meaning any time of day from dawn through dusk.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I heard calling at our birdbath,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: from trees throughout the yard,
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: on our roof,
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: across the street on telephone wires,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: on the ground, on the wing, and even when a parent was right next to the kid.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: For the most part,
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: the call's persistence and tone came across as exceptionally needy pleas
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: for attention.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Mom!
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mom!
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mom!
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mom!
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the calls are more diverse and nuanced than how my non-corvid ears can proceed.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those humans who know Crows describe them as great communicators,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: who have a complex language steeped in cultural tradition,
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: write John Marsloff and Tony Angel in In the Company of Crows and Ravens.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: More than likely,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: the kid was sharing a variety of information with mom,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: which would help both of them survive,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: as was the red-tailed youth,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: perhaps not as complex and nuanced as the crows,
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: but certainly as central to their family.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what the crow baby and the red-tailed baby were saying
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: to their respective parents,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy the sounds, even if they come late at night or early in the morning.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly,
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: they are vastly better than my neighbor's perpetual use of a lawn leaf blower,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: which is annoying me as I type.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, that's the same neighbor who tried to save the bird.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I am always thrilled to see,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: smell, and hear animals living out their lives in our urban ecosystem.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And to see the next generation figuring out how to continue that cycle
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: of life further brings hope and inspiration.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Feelings that are so necessary in the challenging world we inhabit.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my walks, talks,
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: and books,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: including In the Range of the Fire and Ice,
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: along with a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website, geologywriter.com.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to slow down, pay attention, and enjoy the world around you.