That chirping sound

I got home late the other evening. I was tired and after doing whatever I had to do in the kitchen, all I really wanted to do was go to bed. I cut off the lights and began climbing the stairs. That’s when I heard it. The distinctive sound of a bird chirping. Chirp! Followed by about a 10-second delay and then again chirp. 

Now I am proud of my hearing. And the first thing I thought was: what kind of bird is chirping/tweeting at night? Most birds normally go to sleep. I went into my bedroom and I heard it again. That was really disturbing. The sound gave me the impression it was coming from outside, so I went out on my deck. I heard it again. I walked to the north and the south ends of the deck, but I couldn’t see anything. Plus it was cold. So if there was a nest somewhere, I wasn’t about to try to address it in the dark. But once I returned into my bedroom, there it went again. Chirp … chirp … chirp.

Now that was disturbing. I have vaulted ceilings. A couple of months ago I had the roofer come by because I had experienced some water coming in by the skylight. So the thought that there might have been a hole big enough for a bird to get into was making me anxious. How difficult would it be to find the nest? And, what kind of cost would I be looking at? I walked into the bathroom and I again heard it even more distinctly. Chirp … chirp. 

The bathroom does have an attic space above it. That sound coming from there convinced me even more that somehow a bird had gotten into the attic and built a nest with possibly a bunch of baby birds.

I can be somewhat of a brave soul. However, there was no way I was going to go into the attic to discover if there was a problem. I began to imagine failures of the roof exhaust vents that would allow a small bird to squeeze under. I also didn’t want to be up on a ladder swatting against a flying critter protecting their young. I stood there and began to think of people to contact who deal with wild animal pest. I was prepared to put a post in a Facebook repair group to find a handyman to handle the situation. 

I’m not going to lie. My mind started thinking of not only the dollar signs that it would cost for the man to locate this bird, but also to figure out how it could have gotten inside. I began to envision him needing to punch holes in various places looking for the source of the tweeting sound since it seemed to be wherever I went.

I went back into my bedroom and sat on the bed. I heard it again. Chirp … chirp … chirp. It sounded like it was coming from outside the windows that face south. My next-door neighbor has an apartment in her attic and she had just let her niece live there. I was tempted to send her a text and ask if her niece had a bird? At least it would account for the high-pitched chirping sound coming from outside the window. But looking at the hour, it was rather late. It would have to wait until morning. I heard the sound again. Chirp … chirp. Years ago there was a nest between the gutter and the exterior brick wall on that side. Maybe there was a new one and I just hadn’t noticed it.

I returned to the bathroom and took out my contact lenses. I heard the sound again. Chirp … chirp. I began to question if there might be more than one bird and one nest since the sound seemed to be everywhere. I climbed in bed and pulled out my phone to play another session of Traffic Escape, an addictive game where you have to get the cars out of the traffic jam. I had just installed it a couple of days ago and immediately became obsessed with playing it. The vrrroom of the cars as they moved, along with the realistic crash sound when they collided had enthralled me. The game would surely distract me from my problem. Since my contact lenses were out, I held the phone in my hand close to my face. 

Then I heard the distinctive chirping sound again. I put the phone to my ear and sure enough that realistic chirping was emanating from the phone as a background sound to the game when it was in standby mode! And because the phone had been in my hoodie front pocket, wherever I went, the chirping went!

Modern technology … yikes!