Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)
Pictures this: You are walking a trail through the woods, listening to the sounds of nature. The birds singing, an occasional rustle of the leaves as a squirrel scrambles across the trail. As you continue your walk, you are startled to hear a kitten .. she sounds lost. You search for the lost kitten, but all you see is this gray mockingbird .. grey with some cool black markings, and a touch of red. You don’t see a kitten anywhere, but that cool looking bird sure sounds funny.
That’s not exactly how this photo happened, but this is an amazing bird. It’s most common ‘call’ is a raspy mew, which sounds like a cat. A bypasser would swear that there is a lost kitten nearby. This is the Gray Catbird. Mother Nature certainly has a sense of humor!
I took this picture near Eaton, Ohio. My first encounter with a Catbird. What a beautiful and amazing creature.
Totally off topic: When I was writing this, my mind rushed back to my childhood and the cartoon characters Sylvester and Tweety. Who remembers this line, “Awww, the poor kitty cat” or sometimes the more frendly reference, the “puddy-tat”.
~ Rick
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