Mimic

[threeringedmoon]

Originally published at Five Acres with a View. You can comment here or there.

Yesterday morning, one of the smoke detectors started its low battery chirp.  I took it down, but couldn’t figure out how to remove the battery.  I didn’t think Jack would think it was a sufficient emergency for me to wake him up before he would normally wake up.  I put it in the mudroom, where I wouldn’t hear it chirp, since the mudroom is on the other side of an exterior door.    When Jack got up, I asked him to remove the battery and it stopped chirping.

Later, when I went out to feed horses, I was astonished to hear the chirp again:  same pitch, but at a more rapid interval.  I was finally able to track the source of the sound: a magpie sitting on a telephone wire.  It must have heard the smoke alarm chirping in the mudroom, through the dog door, and decided to incorporated the sound in its repertory. 

Comments

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Before so many cell phones had customized ring tones, songbirds in Finland were chirping the Nokia ring tone.

[meggins.livejournal.com]

And I thought it was bad that we have a bird around here (probably a mockingbird) letting out a caw-like sound mimicing one of the cats complaining.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Magpies'll do that. At least it wasn't a mockingbird...

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

How the heck do you change the battery in a magpie??