Hi Betsy, I'm not musically inclined, but Diane and I used an app called Cadenza to verify the frequency and replicate the notes you described, using a recorder. We believe the bird you are describing may possibly be a Mourning Dove. The past few mornings, they have been singing repeatedly in our neighborhood as well. The variable note immediately following the introductory note has not always been audible, making them sound like a series of E notes in succession.
Might that be your bird? We were very impressed that you could hear this note in nature and easily identify it to a specific musical tone - something neither of us can do without the help of an app like Cadenza. :-) Sincerely, Chris T-H Sent from my iPhone On Apr 29, 2017, at 04:16, Betsy Darlington <darlingtonb...@gmail.com<mailto:darlingtonb...@gmail.com>> wrote: Yesterday morning and early evening, around our house and neighborhood east of Collegetown, I kept hearing a totally unfamiliar bird song. It was 3 to 7 or 8 repeated, loud, clear whistles, all on the same note (E of the E string on a violin). Very easy to imitate, so I whistled it a few times, hoping to draw the bird closer, but only chickadees came near. Just once, I saw the bird zoom from the top of a tree to somewhere behind our house, but couldn't see what it looked like, except that it was about the size of a sparrow. It was back-lit, so it was impossible to see what color it was. Do tufted titmice ever sing such a tune? It was even clearer than their usual song, and entirely on one note. (Not much of a composer!) Betsy -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
