Learning a Foreign Language Beaver Lodge Lands Campbell River

a cento for the birds

listen!
ps-SEET ptsick tseet, peeWEET
psit, high tsee, chek
low, slow, rich toop,  plick-plick-plick or
pwit-pwit-pwit,  chipa-chipa-chipa,  chee-chee-chee
sneezy fitz-bew,  a burry zip
warble, tek, a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice
whistles, trills, chip, kew, twitter, flashy sparrow flits
sweet buttery yellow whistle, high, hissing note and seet
rufous flanks buzzing, a taut rubber band
yellow black cap, a long puckering kiss
whinny and a high sharp pik, acrobatic forager
thin sweet whistle
tinkling, bubbly, tumbling and trilling - "pinnacle of song complexity"
upward-spiraling, flutelike, bell-like peep, "water drip" call
short, burry song and low, rattling, chuckling call notes
stuttering, clattering song, loud, clanking, a tsip
sharp and metallic, a dry jip
rich, fast, rollicking, rapid, undulating, and burbling
did you hear?
warbler, vireo, chickadee, wren, finch, sparrow, woodpecker, crossbill
kinglet, thrush, robin, hummingbird, siskin, tanager, waxwing, flycatcher
jay, swallow, merlin, crow, raven, eagle


* all bird and sound descriptions from Cornell Lab of Ornithology "All About Birds"
https://www.allaboutbirds.org

Janis La Couvée

Janis La Couvée (she/her) is a writer and poet with a love of wild green spaces, dedicated to conservation efforts in Campbell River, British Columbia—home since time immemorial to the Liǧʷiɫdax̌ʷ people. Words in Pure Slush, Counterflow 3 (Wordstorm Society of the Arts), Jake the Anti-Literary Magazine, Splendor of Wings (League of Canadian Poets chapbook), Litmora Literary Magazine, among others. Online at janislacouvee.com; @lacouvee on X, Mastodon and Bluesky, @janislacouveeonline on Instagram and Facebook

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