Belated post: Urban soundscape

(this was composed when James Doohan passed away; it is being posted very much later.)

Keith Olbermann was a little off his game today (though it must be said that even when he swings and misses, he's still better than a lot of anchors at the top of their game)--first, he said that James Doohan was the first Star Trek actor to pass away (if by that we stipulate that we mean major recurring character, that sad distinction belongs to Bones) and second, he said that the phenomenon of birds imitating cell phones is so far limited to Germany. Unfortunately, he is talking out of his cloaca on that one.

I beg to differ that the phenomenon is limited to Germany. The parrots we house-sit for all have their own sounds, and sometimes, they'll begin riffing off each other, picking up and developing what we refer to as "Urban Soundscape". From the aviary come the distinct sounds of car alarm, truck backing up, and--yes--cell phone ringing.

Maybe we should record that for Iain's Animal Sounds program, though parrots are already represented.