Just a note; in my years on the forum I have replied to threads in the What's Your Deal subforum, but this will be my first topic posted in this section.

It is zero four hundred hours as I start to write this. I stayed up late, actually to finish watching one of the war movies left over from my annual Memorial Day routine watch rotation, so I finished Blackhawk Down at 01:10 and racked out.

There are a number of species of birds in the area. Every year...EVERY YEAR...starting in mid to late Spring and going on through mid to late Summer, there is some species of bird that decide to start LOUDLY chirping at an almost non-stop pace while dive bombing, flitting, zooming @ 04:00. Some over-achieving little bastard decided to get an early start this AM and woke me up at 03:50.

Not some quiet peaceful delicate song bird type singing, the kind you might expect from a delicate delightful little finch or chickadee. No, this is a non-stop high pitched LOUD chirp....but what makes it even worse is that the birds don't stay in one place, say a nearby tree, and all practice in unison at the same volume...no. The little bastards put on a full force in your face dive bombing air show, rocketing around at mach 2, flitting and zooming, constantly changing directions in erratic but low level flight...all while loudly chirping. I've seen them make low level high speed changes in direction several times within buildings spaced 40 feet apart. So, when they go rocketing past my open back deck door and windows they are LOUD, and wake me up. I keep a floor fan on at night, on the medium setting, which helps to cool my place down but these full-throated diving maniacs can be heard loudly enough over the white noise to wake me up. I long for the times when I could sleep through a nuclear explosion, the times when I had no idea what sounds occurred during the night.

Not sure what these flitting zooming devils are doing. Could be some sort of dating/ mating frenzy, but I'm guessing they are feeding on some flying bugs I can't see. The Miller moths are thick this year so maybe that's like Wheaties to them or something.

Best guess is that they are Swallows, but even standing on my back deck in my underwear trying to see the little feathery lightning bolts I can't make them out very well. They seem to fly a little like bats, only not quite so herky jerky and with more Star Wars Canyon speed dives with twists and turns.

Within city limits so shotguns are out. I'd love to find some decent netting but I'm certain I'm not fast enough to toss it, probably not strong enough to accurately toss it, and, best case scenario, I'd only realistically snare one or two, leaving about 57 dozens remaining to take their place. Even so, I find myself wondering what they taste like and how many it would take to make a meal.

Second place, only, to these little aerial All State Insurance Mayhem commercial contenders, are the Magpies and Camp Robbers which decide to compete with the squirrels to see who can hop the loudest on my roof top...but even these sons of bitches have the common decency to wait until 08:00 in the morning before starting the Olympic gym floor routines.

So, it is now 05:28, and my alarm doesn't go off until 06:00. Guess I'll start on my stretching and work out. Today, no sleep, is going to suck...think I might have to find a way to squeeze in a siesta.

Every year here as well. Last for 45 days and then they are gone.

One year new neighbors moved in and one morning early about 4am I hear three shots from a shotgun. I look out the window and this poor bastard is trying to shoot this swarm of birds wearing his bathrobe. A bathrobe isn’t a bad kit for hauling shells in those pockets.

Later that day he was out in his yard staring at the birds quietly sitting in the tree. I’m not talking 15 or 30. Probably 15000 of them. I rolled by and told him they’d be gone in 30-45 days. His disgusted look told me that was gonna be a problem. He said “I may have to move”. He apologized for shooting in the city limits. I told him it didn’t bother me nor would it bother many of us as we regularly have to dispatch varmints anyway.

Sounds like the mockingbirds that behaved the same outside our window every day we lived in TX.

Woodpeckers have always been my favorite.
Evidently the guy that makes the most noise gets the prettiest girl. They land on the gutters about 6:00. Sounds like a full auto AR going off.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pbramlett:
I look out the window and this poor bastard is trying to shoot this swarm of birds wearing his bathrobe. /QUOTE]

I'd a been shooting too if a swarm of birds were wearing my bathrobe!

pbramlett dangled his participle, not that there is anything wrong with that.

I can’t hear birds, but I would have loved to see that bird wearing his bathrobe.

I'm fairly certain the same type of bird has been haunting me for the past three years; however, it doesn't go away after a month or so. This is a nearly year-round occupation.

The chirping begins about 45mins before I have to get out of bed to prepare for work and literally stops as soon as I walk out the door. It drives me nuts.

My advice is to close your windows during a mid-morning bathroom trip and get a fan to cover the noise of the chirping that gets through the windows.

Likely Para's chimney burd, what he ran off a few years back, come to hang with you...

"TWEEEEEEEETTTT!!!!!"

Enjoy.

Karma it to someone else.

Ha! Try working nights (I’m sure some of you have).

Yesterday was trash day

And recycling day.

And “pressure wash your driveway” day.

All perfectly spaced out

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Ha! Try working nights (I’m sure some of you have).

Yesterday was trash day

And recycling day.

And “pressure wash your driveway” day.

All perfectly spaced out

Brother...I feel your pain. I worked nights for 17 years. Trying to sleep during the day with kids playing, screaming crying, lawn mowers running, delivery trucks, trash trucks, knocks on the door, loud TV and music...working 12s is difficult enough on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, but try doing it with 2 hours of noise ridden poor quality sleep and stumbling into work knowing that you need to be sharp.

Sometimes I resort to popping in foam ear plugs...but I'm always afraid that I'm so tired from a lack of sleep that with the plugs in I'll miss my alarm clock and over-sleep, which can't happen.

Hope you can grab some decent sleep when you are able and stay safe!

03:17...bastards at it again.

Maybe they want your bathrobe?

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Maybe they want your bathrobe?

If they shut up they can have it. Actually, I haven't owned one in years...but I will buy a bathrobe and give it to them, if they will only shut their little beaks.

we stayed at the wiklola village in Hawaii, the center of the place is a bird sanctuary, big mistake, first night didn't know what all the noise was. must have been 50 thousand of them.

I'm in an old house w/ lousy a/c to my bedroom. I'm surrounded by new homes. A fan in the window is a must till dawn but I can hear the birds over the sound of the fan as the Sun comes up. Working late shift means I get up at sun up to close the windows, then back to bed,but then the garbage trucks show up.
Weekends, muscle cars taking off from the corner.
Week days, I'm the only one that mows their own lawn. Everyone else uses commercial lawn services who start early.
I could go on but need a laugh.

Foam earplugs. I have the same problem. Dead quiet right now but at 0400 you'd have thought it was WW3.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
Foam earplugs. I have the same problem. Dead quiet right now but at 0400 you'd have thought it was WW3.

Yeah, I've tried foam earplugs before, and not just for noisy birds but noisy neighbors too. The foam plugs work well...but sometimes too well. As someone who often has trouble sleeping, every once in a while, when the planets align, I hit that perfect sleep and the foam plugs work so well that I don't hear my alarm (reveille), and I've over slept...but yes, I do keep a few sets of foam plugs nearby. I've even gone so far as to consider wearing my electronic earpros when sleeping, although, with their vice-like grip, I don't know how much sleep I'd get with those things clamped to my melon.

The easy solution to oversleeping, because of foam earplugs, is to sync your phone to a soundbar or other decent speaker in your room. Then download from Zedge, Rhapsody in Blue and set it as your alarm sound. Turn up your speaker before you go to bed. Don't ask me how I know this works but trust me, it will wake the dead.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
The easy solution to oversleeping, because of foam earplugs, is to sync your phone to a soundbar or other decent speaker in your room. Then download from Zedge, Rhapsody in Blue and set it as your alarm sound. Turn up your speaker before you go to bed. Don't ask me how I know this works but trust me, it will wake the dead.

Reveille normally works well for me, but I can see Rhapsody in Blue kicking me out of the rack PDQ, foam plugs or not.