Chris - Unfortunately, that salt marsh is close to relatively dense suburban areas, with houses as close as 0.5 km (right across the harbor channel) and a golf course directly adjacent to it. I am not that surprised that a sound like this drifted across the water, although it is better recorded than I would expect even for that distance.
Benjamin On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes < c...@cornell.edu> wrote: > Fascinating. The sound is remarkably similar in structure to Red-headed > Woodpecker, when viewed as a spectrogram (I had initially only listened to > it with my iPhone); however, I notice that this example does start off with > intense modulation, followed by a more pure tone. This is different from > the examples of Red-headed Woodpecker given on the Evans and O'Brien Night > Flight Calls CD-ROM. In those examples, the known and presumed Red-headed > Woodpecker flight calls start off more pure-toned and become modulated, not > the other way around. This being human in nature also explains the harmonic > pure-tone squeaks prior to the vocalization (that of a swing or see saw, > perhaps). Benjamin, do you know if there is a playground or yard nearby? I > assumed from your description that this was out in a salt marsh, away from > human habitation, perhaps wrongfully so. > > I would like to second Bill's note of how similar Virginia Rail > "k'kreeer" calls can be to the Red-headed Woodpecker calls. I recorded a > high number of Virginia Rail vocalizations this spring-summer, many of > which were the "k'kreeer" calls. > > Good birding! > > Sincerely, > Chris T-H > > > > On Aug 7, 2012, at 10:29 AM, Benjamin Van Doren wrote: > > Amazing. Bill, I think your first impression may be right. I went back to > the original file (which I *had* gone back to, but hadn't looked more > than several seconds on both sides of the sound in question to see if there > was anything related). Sure enough, starting about 8 seconds earlier I > start to see these thin, squeaky sounds just like the very soft one you can > hear immediately preceding the scream, interspersed with some child-like > sounds. I.e., a girl on a squeaky swing. When I first saw the recording I > briefly considered the human possibility, but the shape of the call and the > modulation looked decidedly avian when originally sandwiched between two > Veeries in my window of calls to classify. I noted that it didn't sound > exactly like it was coming from the sky (with some reflection present, > etc.) but didn't think too much of it. > > Easy to forget there are other, non-avian things producing sounds out > there at night... Guess it's all about context! > > Benjamin > > > On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Bill Evans <wrev...@clarityconnect.com>wrote: > >> My first impression was a scream from a girl on a swing set. I then >> quickly came around to agreeing with Ben’s first impression and Chris. >> Pretty early for migrant RHWO though, as based on my experience their >> southbound migration in NY is the latter half of September and early >> October – perhaps it’s a wandering bird. >> >> The only caveat on the ID comes up for me when I went back to listen to >> the RHWO calls on the Flight Call Guide. I noticed a similarity with >> Virginia Rail “McGreer” type calls, though RHWO sounds lower-pitched. But >> the question arises whether we can 100% rule out a rail vocalization? >> >> Bill E >> >> *From:* Benjamin Van Doren <bmvando...@gmail.com> >> *Sent:* Monday, August 06, 2012 7:36 PM >> *To:* Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes <c...@cornell.edu> >> *Cc:* NFC-L <nf...@list.cornell.edu> >> *Subject:* Re: [nfc-l] Red-headed Woodpecker? >> >> Hi Chris, >> >> Thanks for the feedback. Never recorded an NFC of one before--very cool. >> This was recorded at 9:18 PM, just over an hour after sunset (8:04 PM), >> with the Song Meter 2 setup by Wildlife Acoustics, Inc. (with the NFC plate >> mic). The whole thing was on a sandbar in a saltmarsh, and I built a wooden >> contraption that slides onto a rebar to hold both the SM2 and mic (can't >> have anything resting on the ground in case there is a very high tide). Has >> worked very well. >> >> Benjamin >> >> On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 7:19 PM, Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes < >> c...@cornell.edu> wrote: >> >>> I, personally, see no hesitation with assigning the ID as that of >>> Red-headed Woodpecker. Nice clean recording, too. What time of night was >>> this? What is your microphone and recorder setup? >>> >>> Thanks, Ben! >>> >>> Sincerely, >>> Chris T-H >>> >>> >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> >>> >>> On Aug 6, 2012, at 18:25, "Benjamin Van Doren" <bmvando...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Hi All, >>> >>> The attached recording is from 12 May 2012. My first thought is that it >>> sounds pretty good for Red-headed Woodpecker, although not exactly right >>> for what I'm used to (diurnally). In the Flight Call Guide (Evans & >>> O'Brien), however, the presumed RHWO nocturnal recordings do show a good >>> amount of variation, so perhaps this does best fit that species. Red-headed >>> Woodpeckers are very uncommon in my area but do occasionally occur as >>> migrants and sometimes winter residents. In the recording there seems to be >>> a soft cluck-like sound right before the call, too soft for me to really >>> make out but American Robin-like. I don't really see the main vocalization >>> being a robin, though, unless it is a very weird one... >>> >>> The microphone was located along the coast in a saltmarsh, but not too >>> far from woods (and people). >>> >>> Thoughts welcome! >>> >>> Benjamin Van Doren >>> White Plains, NY >>> >>> >>> -- >>> *NFC-L List Info:* >>> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> >>> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> >>> Subscribe, Configuration and >>> Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> >>> *Archives:* >>> The Mail >>> Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> >>> Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> >>> BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> >>> *Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> >>> !* >>> -- >>> >>> <MM.20120512.211836.06.sel000285_LONG.wav> >>> >>> -- >>> *NFC-L List Info:* >>> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> >>> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> >>> Subscribe, Configuration and >>> Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> >>> *Archives:* >>> The Mail >>> Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> >>> Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> >>> BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> >>> *Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> >>> !* >>> -- >>> >> >> -- >> *NFC-L List Info:* >> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> >> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> >> Subscribe, Configuration and >> Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> >> *Archives:* >> The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> >> Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> >> BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> >> *Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> >> !* >> -- >> > > > --**** > Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes**** > Field Applications Engineer**** > Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology**** > 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850**** > W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132**** > http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp > > -- 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/ --
