Scarce Crossbill (Monynut Forest 26th Nov. 06).
This was a surprise. According to the Sound Approach this form has only been recorded in the Benelux countries, but no doubt travels far and wide like the rest. Only recorded once and that was just the excitement call, the flight calls were lost amongst loads of Parakeets and British Crossbills when the large flock took off.
At the risk of being a killjoy or smartarse again I think we will have to accept the SA's claim that 'scarce' thus far only been recorded on the continent !
This to me sounds like an EcB, but more like a 1B type, or parakeet if you prefer the SA. On my sonogram of your call below you can see that there is a faint note (subharmonic ?) at 2.4kHz followed by a strong note at 3.0kHz. There is then a faint harmonic at 3.5KHz and again at 4.5kHz. There is even a very faint harmonic at 5.0 khz on one of the calls. These harmonics give the call depth or body when we listen to it.
In SA the scarce only has a main note and a harmonic - perhaps the others (if they exist) have been filtered out. This makes the call sound quite high and thin.
However, pushing the 'grams aside for a moment, the real proof of the pudding is in the listening. If you compare your 'scarce' call with tracks 72 and tracks 83 in Sound Approach you will hear that your call sounds much more like 72, the parakeet crossbill, or 1B as I like to call them.
Sonograms, although very scientific in function, are much more of an artform in reading correctly - the aesthetic and the scientific meet if you like. In the end, your ears will never betray you.......
Lindsay
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