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Community Corner

On the Ol' Hook Whistling a Happy Tune

The mockingbirds on Sandy Hook a hundred years ago and signing their tunes now

I’m hooked again on Sandy Hook. Now that summer is officially here, I want to throw my arms up and sing a sea shanty, but my family and friends would probably run for the hills and I’d be alone on the beach.

But since you can’t hear me singing, you can imagine a beautiful, dramatic contralto voice that carries a tune splendidly and teases the words in such a way that you want to sing yourself.

Here are the words of a sea shanty appropriately called "A Hundred Years Ago" that I found on the www. contemplator.com/sea Web site. Like most sea shanties, it is a call and response song, so the sailors would sing the "Ho, yes, ho!" part.

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“A hundred years is a very long time,

Ho, yes, ho!

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A hundred years is a very long time.

A hundred years ago.

They used to think that pigs could fly

Ho, yes, ho!

I don’t believe it, no, not I.

A hundred years ago.

They thought the moon was made of cheese

You can believe it if you please.

They thought the stars were set a-light

By some good angel every night!

They hung a man for making steam,

They cast his body in the stream.

A hundred years ago.”

One hundred years ago, June 28, 1911, the headline in the Red Bank Register rang out, “MOCKERS ON SANDY HOOK.”

I had no idea what they meant by mockers. What is there to mock on Sandy Hook, except maybe the nude bathers at the clothing optional beach, which was probably not possible 100 years ago? So, of course, I read the article and found out that it related to mockingbirds and it could have been written today.

"Sandy Hook is a paradise for birds," the story said. "It has always been a paradise for birds. Even before Fort Hancock was established there, and when the wooded tract on the Hook was open to everyone, birds were numerous. There is a good deal of poison ivy on the Hook and this kept many persons from going there. In many places the woods are almost impenetrable, and the birds found excellent shelter at all times."

The article goes on to explain that with the establishment of Fort Hancock, the public has been prevented from roaming around so it has become even more of a refuge for birds.

"The officials of Sandy Hook protect the birds and make friends with them, with the result that many of the birds which are ordinarily shy and retiring build their nests near the officers' quarters and near the barracks and other buildings, they having learned that they are safe anywhere within the limits of the peninsula," the story went on to say.  "They do not seem to be disturbed in the least by the noise of the guns, nor does the jar of the ground, nor the thunder of the cannons addle the eggs."

Thank goodness — even today no one wants addled eggs! According to the dictionary, addled means rotten when referring to eggs.

That year, a pair of mockingbirds built their nest near the proving grounds. Park officials were amazed by the fact of the mockers and they became part of the lure of the park for visitors.

"In the South these birds are as tame as robins are with us," the story said. "They frequently build so close to the house that one can put his hand in a nest by reaching out of the window. The pair of birds which have made their home on Sandy Hook this year have all the fearlessness of their Southern representatives. Sandy Hook is the furthest north that mocking birds have been found."

Apparently, Dr. Samuel Lockwood of Freehold, who was superintendent of the Monmouth County Schools and a naturalist of more than local fame, was the first person to identify the birds:

"It had long been rumored that birds different from our native birds were on Sandy Hook in the summer, and from the description of the birds it was judged that they were mockers. Forty-two years ago this summer (1869), Dr. Lockwood went to Sandy Hook on a tour of investigation. He was accompanied by John. H. Cook of Red Bank, who was then a farmer boy in Middletown Township. The better part of a week was spent on Sandy Hook and five nests of these birds were found. Dr. Lockwood subsequently wrote a paper for the 'Auk, the leading ornithological magazine of this country, in which he told of the trip and of the finding of mocking birds on Sandy Hook."

According to one of the mockingbird Web sites, if you hear an endless string of 10 or 15 different bird sounds outside your house, you might be hearing a Northern Mockingbird, a slender, gray bird that sounds more beautiful than it looks.

Apparently, they sing almost endlessly and mimic other birds. They even sing at night when most birds are silent and they harass birds that intrude on their territories by flying around them flaunting their bright white wing patches.

Sometimes, when I’m sitting in the backyard in the evening, I hear what seems to be a call and response from the birds high up in the trees; although, it could be just one mockingbird making all kinds of sounds.

Apparently many species of bird imitate other birds, but the Northern Mockingbird makes it an art form because it not only imitates nature — birds, animals and humans — it imitates mechanical sounds such as car alarms. Actually, it sounds a bit like my son-in-law. He has a finely tuned sense of sound and mimics everything when he whistles: birds, classical music, sirens. His repertoire is as astounding as the mockingbird.

Apparently, once mockingbirds establish a nesting territory and a relationship, they tend to be monogamous, an interesting concept these days. Both work to build the nest, but the male does most of the work while the female watches for predators and once their eggs are hatched, both the male and female feed the chicks.

For humans, it seems to be just the opposite, the women do all of the work while the men watch for predators. But since there really aren’t many predators these days, they have been more helpful around the house. And like avian parents, both feed the offspring.

Sea shanties are not the only call and response songs. Mockers have their own song and response sounds and sometimes the sound is low like a 'chuck' and other times it is a wheezing noise with a high low repeated twice.

Although Mockingbirds have pea-sized heads, they don’t necessarily have pea brains which can be quite the opposite in humans. We often have large heads with pea brains.

In 2009, mockingbirds were reportedly able to pick out a threatening person from a crowd. Researchers had one person stand near a mockingbird nest and touch it, while other people avoided the nest. Later, the mockingbirds recognized the intruder and attacked him, while ignoring the other people.

When are we going to be able to do that? Sometimes, it seems as though we need to be hit over the head before we recognize danger.

Mockers were featured in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. And then there is that well-known American lullably that is supposed to lull a baby to sleep: "Hush Little Baby, don’t say a word/Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird./And if that mockingbird don’t sing/Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring."

Like so many nursery rhymes and children’s songs, it doesn’t make sense to me. But the words rhyme and the melody is restful, so you might as well just purse your lips together and whistle.

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