It doesn’t seem fair to the rest of the Cycle365 universe that MY TOWN has so many sounds available for this month’s challenge. But don’t blame ME for that. It was Scott who thought up this challenge–blame him. I just happen to be the beneficiary of such an easy challenge. Sometimes it’s pretty nice to be living in “The Land of Sounds.”

I hear so many sounds on my bike rides that it’s almost embarrassing. Even more embarrassing is my need to post every one of them, and let me tell you, this post is going to have a LOT of them. That’s why I’m going to make this one-time offer: All of today’s sounds are available to Cycle365-ers FREE OF CHARGE! Listen to them as many times as you’d like. Borrow them. Share them. Laugh at them. Cry with them. They are YOURS to do what you will.

There are so many sounds, that I’m going to divide this post into two parts. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll start with Part One.

PART ONE: Machines

Whether it’s trains, planes, barges, woodchippers, street sweepers, garbage trucks, roadbuilding equipment, factories or pipelines, I am fascinated by the sounds of heavy equipment.

PART TWO: Animals

As much as I like machinery, I like animals even more. Even the animals who hover above waiting for me to die and the ones who want to rip my throat out.

There sure were a lot of different bird sounds in the last one, right? And it provides a nice opportunity to segue into an update on the mama bird who built a nest in the wreath hanging on our front door. No doubt you’ve been hanging on the edge of your seats waiting to read about what happened to those eggs I showed a couple weeks ago.

I check in on those eggs every couple of days, and every time I open the door the mama bird flies away to allow me to take a picture. Two days ago, I noticed a significant change in the eggs. As if by magic, they turned into feathery puffballs.

I know it’s hard to see those cute little things through the screen so, to rectify the situation, I went out the back door and walked around the house for a better picture. I knew I’d probably scare mama bird away again. She flies away with amazing speed any time The Feeshko or I get within 40-feet of the front door. Then she scolds us from a nearby tree until we get far enough away that she feels comfortable enough to return to the nest.

I have tried to capture a picture of her flying from nest to tree many times, but she is so fast that by the time I snap the picture she is already out of the frame. EXCEPT this one time.

Had I been more prepared, I would have focused in on the sound of mama bird chirping from the tree. That didn’t happen, but luckily I had the vocal skills to recreate the exact sounds she was making. Check out the following audio recording.