There were no animals, birds, or other creatures harmed in any way in the writing of this story.

This weekend past, my wife and I were visiting my son, David, who is about to be married to a lovely woman, Christy.  They both live in the foothills of north Georgia, near Cummin County.

It was necessary for Dorothy and me to sleep in David’s upstairs bedroom with the windows open and the ceiling fans on for two nights.  The air conditioning in the townhouse died, so only by opening the windows in both upstairs bedrooms in the back and front of the townhouse could we obtain sufficient air circulation to cool down our bedrooms and sleep.  While the daytime temperature was 92F, the night temperature was a comfortable 68F.  The first night, I was so exhausted from the previous work day and the drive down I-85 on Friday afternoon, I slept soundly, managing to ignore any outside noise near the townhouse.

The second night at exactly 2:26AM, I woke up.  I looked at my cell phone to be sure this was the correct time, as it was still very dark, of course.  To my surprise, I had awoken to the warbling calls of a nearby bird.  He or possibly she was happily singing, “Cheera, Cheera, Cheera” which changed to “twee, twee, twee, twee.”  This was quickly followed by a deep-throated warbling sound, which I cannot reproduce, then “cha, cha, cha, cha” as if the melodious bird was clearing his throat, and then concluding with “twaa, twaa, twaa, twaa!” followed by a soft rumbling sound, then ending.  Following this five or perhaps six part song, the exuberant night singing bird had the audacity to repeat the whole call all over again and then for a third time and then several more!

I listened for about 15 minutes to see if said bird was going to stop its song of the night, but it did not.

My wife had complained on the prior morning that a singing bird had kept her from sleeping the night before, but until that moment I made no connection.

Unable to sleep, I decided to investigate this bird and his five or possibly six part song, hoping to shoo the bird away.  After getting my clothes and shoes on, I went outside.  The night was dark, with no moon and only a few stars. A nice cool breeze was blowing from the north.  It took only a couple of minutes to isolate the bird song and the direction of his sound coming from the lush cedar tree next door.

About twelve feet from my son’s front door, is a large and finely shaped cedar tree.  It belongs to his neighbor’s front yard.  I walked over to the tree to look for my singing companion and noted as I circled the front of the tree, I did not see any bird.  But standing on the public sidewalk I did see a large luminous yellow light on the top of the lamp pole on the corner.  By this time the bird had quit singing.  I then detected a rustling in the lower part of the tree and turned to investigate.  The bird sat very still, so I turned on my flash on my cellphone and took a sequence of flash photos trying to illuminate the bird’s perch.  I could see nothing, so I observed the tree for a while longer hoping for a sign of the bird’s location, but I found none.

“At least”, I said to myself, “the bird has stopped singing,” so I went back to bed.

About the time I became comfortable in my bed the bird started singing again!  I will not repeat what I uttered as my song of the night.

I then remembered a flash light in my truck dash, so after dressing again I went downstairs and outside on another quest to bring an end to this singing bird’s song.

I thought the flashlight might help, as I moved its light methodically up and down first the center then the various branches of the lush cedar tree.  But it did not help at all, as this bird remained completely still and did not move.  I moved about twenty feet away and became very still myself, leaning against my parked truck, seeking my quarry.  I listened for about thirty minutes more this time, during which no singing nor movement of any bird or any other creature occurred.

During my time outside, I did listen to the sounds of a beautiful Georgia night in this townhouse community in northern Georgia.

I listened in silence as air conditioners cycled on and off with their fan like noise.  I heard a car racing down the highway towards the northeast, going much too fast.  I heard other sounds, of what sounded like an ambulance siren off in the distance.  And, though I cannot be sure, I thought I heard another bird singing just like this one had sung.  “Damn!” I said.  “Is north Georgia evolving a new species of bird that sings only in the night?”  Was I witnessing the beginning of a new species of a bird who only sings in the deepest part of the night?

Of course, the most obvious explanation for this bird’s singing in the night is that he or she is obviously confused!  This mocking bird apparently surmised the lamp on the post was bright enough to be the morning sun and started singing to announce the dawn is coming.  But then, this is 2:26am!

I reviewed again the whole set of events carefully in my mind, making all the mental connections more permanent. Particularly, I recalled again the night sounds which I had carefully recorded in my brain.  It was then I remembered this peculiar sound I had heard in the distance, perhaps a mile or more away.  I had heard the night song of another bird, just like this first one, singing a very similar song.  It dawned upon me then with even greater force and power.  I am privileged to witness the evolution of a new mockingbird.  In the northern foothills of the great state of Georgia, a new bird is evolving while the whole world sleeps.  No longer bound by day and night cycle, this new bird is free to live and propagate its species in the middle of the darkest night. Singing from midnight to 4 am, this bird is practicing his or her song of the night.  I have documented something out of the ordinary, and worthy of further study and review.  We, as human species have changed our night into day.  And so our song birds are evolving along with us.  Soon no creature will be sure what is of the night and what is of the day, as the abundant artificial light has confused us all.  The poor song birds, who in the past knew the coming of the dawn and the arrival of the night will be as confused as the rest of us.   The greater question is this: “What does this mean?  How can we explain this monumental change?”  When this occurs, that night has turned fully into day, as I now bear witness, will the world as we have known it be forever changed?  Or will we find that day following day is better than night following day?  Am I confusing you?  Or perhaps I don’t need to, since you may already be that way.  Or perhaps, this is the point of this strange and wonderful story.

Bill W.

There were no birds, animals or any other creatures harmed in any way in the writing of this story.