FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Fw: Sounds of spring

["Kistlers" <kistlers@xxxxxxxxx>]

brainard this is fascinating. has anyone ever heard a cooper's hawk
"singing" ? a friend of mine who is an experience birder has a hawk who sits
in a tree not far from his feeder and makes noises reminiscent of goldfinch
songs. we were wondering if this is an attempt to lure prey.
steve k


----- Original Message -----
From: <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 5:43 PM
Subject: [birdky] Sounds of spring


>
> I've always been one tuned into the sounds of birds about as much as their
> sights, so while out and about the past couple of weeks, I have enjoyed a
> few things I seldom encounter, as well as a new tune or two!
>
> In late March, I got to hear for only the third time now the song of a
Blue
> Jay (all in late March or early April).  This one, like one I heard last
> spring, was sitting in small trees at the edge of a wetland . . . could
> there be something to that scenario?  It was late morning again and the
song
> again contained primarily muted but distinguishable imitations of the
calls
> of Northern Flicker, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and American Goldfinch, with
> various jay notes thrown in for good measure.  This one sang longer than
the
> other two, going on for more than five minutes, sitting quietly in the low
> cover.  When it awakened from it's singing state, various typical raucous
> jay notes took over.
>
> At this same site, and once at my family's place in eastern Jefferson
County
> earlier in the spring, I heard another jay imitating a Cooper's Hawk,
> something that I think I recall hearing in the past a few times, but not
for
> sure.  These guys are well-known for their imitations of Red-shouldered
> Hawks, of course, but I've also heard them do Red-tails and an occasional
> Broad-winged.
>
> During the same visit to west Kentucky, I got to hear a Winter Wren for
the
> first time in a couple of years.  This beautiful song can be heard on nice
> days in winter, but is most often heard as local winterers prepare to head
> north in early spring (or perhaps from migrants that are stopping in on
> their way north).  This one appeared to be performing for a second and was
> at first almost drowned out by a chorus of nearly 100 Rusty Blackbirds,
> another favorite song of mine.
>
> One evening I was out west of Paducah conducting some nocturnal voice
> surveys for a rare KY frog (the Crawfish Frog).  It was dusk, some minutes
> after sunset, and I was near the southern end of the Paducah airport.
> Crawfish frogs had just started to call and a couple of American Woodcocks
> were peenting away.  Twice within a minute or so I also distinctly heard
the
> "winnowing" courtship call of a Wilson's Snipe, something I've only heard
in
> eastern Canada during the breeding season and certainly never in KY.  This
> strange sound was certainly a surprise to experience "at home" in KY!
>
> While conducting three nights of frog surveys in Ballard and McCracken
> counties, I was heartened to hear no less than 9 Great Horned Owls, most
on
> one particularly calm night.  The West Nile Virus scourge of the late
summer
> of 2002 certainly reduced the population significantly, but there is
> apparently at least a decent number of birds still here to breed.  In
> addition to the calls of adults, I heard the distinctive screechy notes of
> small young begging from their nests at three different locations
somewhere
> in the distant darkness.
>
> bpb, Louisville
> brainard.palmer-ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
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Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
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BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx