Hearing, and having to guess which artist

 I stopped in the woods twice this week to try to find the source of sounds I don’t hear every day. The first, at Stone Mountain, sounded like a tropical bird, or perhaps a couple of chimpanzees arguing. The second, at Arabia Mountain, I mistook for a whining dog.

I never saw a thing. But I’m pretty sure both sounds were made by a Yellow-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus. They are common in the Piedmont, but shy. The first call was the cuckoo’s signature chatter, hoot, rattle and trill. The whining dog was its “coo song.”

You can hear both tunes at the Audubon Society’s website:

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/yellow-billed-cuckoo