Monday, June 22, 2009

Late Nite Calls by Mating Mockingbirds Has Carroll Gardens Flapping Mad by Ben Chapman - NY Daily News

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And you thought your neighbors were loud.

New Yorkers are being kept up all night by an influx of sex-crazed mockingbirds looking for hanky-panky just outside their windows.

Tormented residents complain the ear-splitting love songs are as annoying as car alarms.

"It's loud and shrill and grating," fumed John DiMartino, 37, an engineer from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

DiMartino had to buy earplugs to drown out the late-night love songs that started outside his apartment about three weeks ago. "It was making it hard for us to sleep."

Bird experts said the city's mockingbird population has exploded since the species first appeared here in the 1960s.

The numbers dipped over the last few years, but the population climbed about 10% in 2008 over 2007, according to a winter census conducted by volunteers with the National Audubon Society.

Male mockingbirds show off for females by imitating the sounds they hear - such as the whistles of other birds and even honking and traffic noise.

Eric Moore of Staten Island said he wishes the bawdy birds that squawk outside his St. George apartment every night would just get a room.

"I can't open the windows," said Moore, 42, a 3-D animator. "It's a hassle."

Christopher Layer said a mockingbird outside his Greenwich Village loft sounds like a Lexus that's about to be stolen.

"The bird has an amazing ability to imitate car alarms," said Layer, 40, a musician who plays the bagpipes in Shakespeare in the Park's "Twelfth Night." "He starts every night about 2 a.m."

Sometimes the birds attack.

"The mockingbird is very territorial and protective of their young," said Peter Dorosh, 48, a forestry technician at Prospect Park and president of the Brooklyn Bird Club. "It will harass any intruders on its breeding territory."

Bronx professional dog walker Carolyn Guarriello, 42, said she's been afraid of the birds ever since she was attacked by one on 236th St. in Riverdale a year ago. "I was traumatized," she said. "I'm thinking of the movie 'The Birds,' where they peck people's eye's out."

After a quiet winter, Guarriello is starting to see the birds return. "They're probably nesting here now," she said.

Not everyone is annoyed by the singing.

Queens bird watcher Arie Gilbert, 47, said he enjoys hearing the lusty love songs, even in the middle of the night.

"Sometimes you can be really surprised by the songs mockingbirds sing," said Gilbert. "It's wonderful to hear the sound of nature. It's just a happy sound."