Hi Andy, you are certainly not the only one with a 'mystery call' file. I record a high percentage of mystery calls here in Portugal. Many of them seem to be one-offs, calls that I never recorded before and perhaps never will again. One possibility is that they are species that very rarely give a night flight call, and don't use the same call by day. More likely, they are unusual variant calls of species that often call at night. When I think I have solved some of these mysteries, that's almost invariably what they seem to be. Others may not be birds at all. Black Rats unfortunately have a large repertoire of vaguely bird-like sounds, for example...
Regarding your two mystery sounds, I'm certainly not the best person to comment being a European, and I'm not sure about either of them! However, the first sounds to me like a medium to large ungulate or other mammal. I don't know what's possible in your area. The second one doesn't ring any bell for me but that's hardly surprising. Somebody who lives a bit closer may be able to help. all the best, Magnus Robb On 25 Sep 2011, at 17:42:50, Andy Martin wrote: > Attached are 2 calls I'm having a bit of trouble with. > > First one recorded on 4-16-10 after 3 AM, sounds so familiar but I just > cannot place it. Feel like I have heard it somewhere before. Almost like > when someone's name is stuck on the tip of your tongue and your brain just > can't produce it. Tried to match it up to Great Blue Heron or possibly Great > Horned Owl "harnk" call but none of variations of these calls sounded right. > Not even sure if the GHO "harnk" call is given in flight and recorded call > does sound as if its coming closer to the mic. > > 2nd call recorded on 3-27-07 around 11:20 PM, is just a single "burp like" > bark. Seemingly different than usual herons at this time of year for my > location (Great Blue or American Bittern). Is it possible this might be a > Hooded Merganser? > > After 4-5 years of recording, hope I am not the only NFC enthusiast with a > folder on my computer entitled "mystery calls" that seems to get a little > bit bigger each year. On a positive note, while recently going through my > mystery call folder, found and ID'ed a couple recordings of Yellow-crowned > Night-Heron and a Virginia Rail. > > Thanks for any help. > > Andy Martin > Gaithersburg, MD > www.nightmigrants.com > -- > NFC-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- > <041610,341AMver2.wav><032707,1121PM.wav> -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
