Backyard Journal: Catbirds

An illustration done with a wobbly grey pen and grey washes. Stylized trees stand beyond a wooden fence and gate. The caption reads, We have catbirds in the yard this year.

A closeup of a cartoon catbird angrily crying out into the air, spittle flying from its open beak. Its speech reads, sqWAAAAH.

In the trees, several catbirds scream variations of WAAH into the air. The caption reads, It's like listening to tiny, feathery fallen angels.

I’ve started taking morning walks around the backyard. Some mornings it’s quiet enough to hear the rabbits leaping across the grass. Other mornings I can hear construction in the farmer’s field where new townhouses are being built. One day, this will no longer be a truly rural area and just another extension of the sprawling suburbia that is Hampton Roads.

Every year, we seem to get different wild neighbors. Years ago, killdeer nested in the backyard. Coyotes moved in about a decade ago. Last year, I spotted orb weavers in every bush. This year, it’s catbirds.

Okay, I’m exaggerating about the noise these guys make. But the first time you hear its call, you might think you’re hearing a kitten in distress. Once you learn it’s just a bird, you relax. The fiftieth time you hear its scream, you’ll wonder why they never learned a different call.