Cormorants fishing

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The Orb (25th Anniversary Show), London, 19/10/13

Italian Gulls

I was in Italy recently having a 'normal' holiday... binocular-free. Of course I added Italian Sparrow to my life list and enjoyed seeing Blue Rock Thrush on Rome's Colosseum. In Venice, we came across a small square where a fish market stall was being set up with the catch being gutted and cleaned over a street drain. This was attracting Yellow-legged Gulls. While Lisa wrote her postcards, I took a few photographs and made some sound-recordings (no microphone with me) using the built-in mics on my small handheld device. Life in the square was noisy with locals, tourists and gulls! 

Adult Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

Ad Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

  

Ad Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

 

                         

                         Long call from an adult at a small fish market stall.

                          

                          Mewing calls from birds scavenging around a small fish market stall.

                          

                          Calls from squabbling birds scavenging around a small fish market stall.

Waiting for scraps of fish being gutted at the market stall

Juvenile/1st-autumn Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

4th-autumn Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

2nd-autumn Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

Adult Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

3rd-autumn Yellow-legged Gull, Venice, Italy, 28/09/13

Quail singing in Hertfordshire wheat field

...with Skylark and Linnet in the background.

Woodlark Music

Here is an excerpt of a ten minute recording I made of a Woodlark (Lullula arborea) which was was singing on the wing at a considerable height. Not only is it quite beautiful to listen to, the resulting sonograms look like music!

Selection of strophes/phrases from a 10 minute recording of a Woodlark (Lullula arborea) in aerial song-flight

Nightjar Sounds in Surrey

Last weekend I took the bike on the train down to Surrey to observe and listen to Eurasian Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus). Arriving an hour before sunset a Woodlark was singing its endless song in the sky and a Dartford Warbler was giving a few bursts of scratchy warbles form the heather. About 40 minutes before sunset I heard a couple of short churrs from pine woodland. Just as the sun disappeared, when conditions were still warm with little wind, several Nightjars emerged to feed and display over the heathland. For the next hour I was surrounded by calling, churring and wing-clapping birds. Watching these mysterious birds float buoyantly around in the half-light against a warm sunset with the scent of pine and aromatic heathland plants made for a memorable summer experience. But then it was a race back in the dark to catch the last train to Waterloo.

Territorial male churring song from sandy heathland with pines.

Territorial churring song followed by wing-clapping display flight.

Calls from a male in flight.

Duetting Scops Owls

Earlier this month I was birding in Extremadura in western Spain, camping on the edge of Monfragüe National Park. Each morning I woke to the sounds of Hoopoes and Iberian (Azure-winged) Magpies. In the evening after sunset, Eurasian Scops Owls (Otus scops) began 'singing' and one evening I managed to locate a bird about 600 metres away on the road to Malpartida de Plasencia. 

Dehesa habitat around Monfragüe

What was most interesting was that from a distance it sounded like a single bird, but on getting closer it didn't sound like a typical Scops Owl. In fact, what I was hearing was both a male and female in perfect, overlapping synchronisation. Have a listen to the sound recordings below (and click the sonograms for a larger image). The male is producing the lower frequency sound at 1.23-1.94 kHz, with the female at 1.41-1.61 kHz.

Duetting pair with almost perfect synchronisation; the female is producing the second, quieter, shorter and higher-pitched part.

Detail from the above sonogram showing the duet detail: Male song in blue Female song in red

At times the female would drop out of the duet, and the sound clip and sonogram below shows the male vocalising alone. It appeared to produce a slightly longer note when not duetting.

Song/territorial call from the male.

Kindrogan Dawn Chorus Chronology

I've been noting the chronology of species joining the dawn chorus since 2003 at Kindrogan Field Centre in Perthshire, Scotland. This occurs in the first or second week of June when I’m present on a university field course. While this phenomenon of gradual song burst leading up to sunrise (approximately 04:28 on 5 June 2013) probably peaks sometime earlier in May, many species are still clearly defending territories from neighbouring males, guarding fertile females from extra pair copulations, or in some cases still attempting to attract a mate, or additional mates. Here is the chronology from a typical morning on 5 June 2013 with 50% cloud cover and almost no wind. Listen to an excerpt of the dawn chorus from a sound recording made that morning featuring Robin, Great Tit, Wren, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Goldcrest, and Treecreeper.  



Click the images to enlarge.

The chart shows the time at which the first song from each species was noted from the Robin starting at 03:05 to the final species, Spotted Flycatcher at 04:11. The waveform shows the relative sound intensity recorded with the built-in mics on my sound recorder.

The north-west end of Strathardle, looking south-east from Creag na Cuinneige. Straloch Loch is in the foreground, Kindrogan Hill on the right

Urban Blackbird singing in Kensington Gardens

A Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) singing mid-afternoon in Kensington Gardens in London. 



 

New ambient track

Ayrshire Bird Report 2011

The 2011 edition of the Ayrshire Bird Report is now available. Essential reading for anyone visiting the county, it contains the most important bird sightings recorded in 2011 as well as informative articles on Ayrshire's avifauna. It is published by the Ayrshire Branch of the SOC (Scottish Ornithologists' Club). Details: 128 pages with eight full-colour inner pages of photographs, plus 16 pieces of artwork and 14 black and white photos. Please visit the Ayrshire Birding website for details of how to obtain your copy or e-mail me.

Fraser Simpson (Compiler & Editor)

Contents: 
Editorial by Fraser Simpson 
Pallid Harrier in Ayrshire by Gordon McAdam 
The Kestrel in Ayrshire 2011 by Gordon Riddle 
Sparrowhawk Breeding Details 2011 by Ian Todd 
River Ayr Dippers – Breeding Details 2011 by Ian Todd 
Chronological Summary by Angus Hogg 
Systematic List compiled by Fraser Simpson 
Recent Rarities & Scarcities in Ayrshire by Dave Grant, Pete McEwan, Angus Hogg 
Gazetteer of Sites in Ayrshire compiled by Fraser Simpson 
Checklist of Ayrshire Birds compiled by Angus Hogg & Fraser Simpson

Sounds of breeding egrets

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) with nesting material

Earlier this month I was on a field trip based around Zahara de los Atunes in south west Spain. One morning before breakfast I was able to visit a growing heronry/rookery with an estimated 400 pairs of Cattle Egrets, 10's of pairs of Little Egret, and around 10 pairs of Glossy Ibis, all busy incubating or nest-building. A number of Black-crowned Night Herons are probably breeding there too though are a lot more elusive and crepuscular. Spoonbills were also observed flying low over this breeding colony. I had my short/slow lens with me but managed some records shots (the light is great this far south!). I also made some sound recordings of both Cattle and Little Egrets. These are normally fairly silent birds - that is until you hear them en masse at a breeding colony!

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)