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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Should you tick "heard only" birds? (1 Viewer)

Just to emphasise the point being made by the people posting photographs, two different Quail (Elmley, Kent and Cambridgeshire) without crop trampling and a Corncrake out of the car window (Balranald)

John
 

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Farnboro John said:
Thanks Chris! All it takes is restraint and patience. No hides, no tapes, no trampling. Just standing on paths or even sitting in the car eating a Hobnob. :t:

John
Click to expand...

A Hobnob John? I assume you're fully aware of what you're saying here - viz

1. the proximity of some Hants quail sites to Po*3on D**n where The Satan Bug was set;

2. that "Hobnobs" is code (according to Wikileaps) for Weapons of Mass Destruction;

3. one of the well-known quail sites on an ancient fort lies on a ley line which connects Glastonbury Tor to GCHQ.

Please don't use Bf for sending coded messages to N. Korea - you'll get us a bad name. B :)

Peter
 
Johann Sebastian Bach said:
A Hobnob John? I assume you're fully aware of what you're saying here - viz

1. the proximity of some Hants quail sites to Po*3on D**n where The Satan Bug was set;

2. that "Hobnobs" is code (according to Wikileaps) for Weapons of Mass Destruction;

3. one of the well-known quail sites on an ancient fort lies on a ley line which connects Glastonbury Tor to GCHQ.

Please don't use Bf for sending coded messages to N. Korea - you'll get us a bad name. B :)

Peter
Click to expand...

I hope you aren't suggesting that "wet my lips" is an invitation to throw VX at my face.... :eek!:

John
 
Can you guys please stop talking in code/flirting with each other. I'm trying to think up some quail-related biscuit jokes but struggling a bit at the moment ...
 
Returning to the subject (almost), I was captivated by a singing song thrush yesterday. It was a still evening and it had been the warmest day of the winter so far. The bird's been around for most of the winter but this was the first time it had decided to sing. The song was beautiful and entrancing. It was easy to anthropomorphise and believe the bird was celebrating the return of spring.

Song thrushes are not exactly boring to look at but their song is, for me, a far greater part of the package of sound and vision. A 90% - 10% split, I suggest.

Peter
 
Johann Sebastian Bach said:
Returning to the subject (almost), I was captivated by a singing song thrush yesterday. It was a still evening and it had been the warmest day of the winter so far. The bird's been around for most of the winter but this was the first time it had decided to sing. The song was beautiful and entrancing. It was easy to anthropomorphise and believe the bird was celebrating the return of spring.

Song thrushes are not exactly boring to look at but their song is, for me, a far greater part of the package of sound and vision. A 90% - 10% split, I suggest.

Peter
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I feel the same way about many thrushes - Swainson's, Hermit, and Veery all have captivating, ethereal songs (though I also enjoy seeing them). It seems that for most people who have posted, whether they tick heard-onlys or not, have expressed greater satisfaction with the experience of seeing the bird over only hearing it. I wonder though if any feel that certain species encounters are incomplete as "seen-only"? Not so much about listing it but the satisfaction of the encounter. Like seeing a bird renowned for its voice but not getting to hear it, or seeing a cryptic species identifiable only by location and not hearing the voice that makes it distinct.
 
Of course calls and songs are part of the enjoyment!
I went to see singing Pallas's Warbler because I wanted to hear "the canary of the taiga". I might also have gone to a singing Dusky Warbler had I known in time (but I've heard it in Asia and it's like a boring Chiffchaff).
Sadly the Siberian Rubythroat was rather subdued when I went to see it for the second time.
 
Xenospiza said:
Of course calls and songs are part of the enjoyment!
I went to see singing Pallas's Warbler because I wanted to hear "the canary of the taiga". I might also have gone to a singing Dusky Warbler had I known in time (but I've heard it in Asia and it's like a boring Chiffchaff).
Sadly the Siberian Rubythroat was rather subdued when I went to see it for the second time.
Click to expand...

Some Shrikes have surprisingly good songs.

One of my most memorable nights ever was spent in the Morrocan Sahara in the 90's. The desert was lit by a full moon, an experience in it's own right but we were surounded by calling Stone Curlews, a wonderfully, atmospheric night.

A
 
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I think I've somehow stupidly overlooked the most important word in the thread title: "should". Obviously the only birds you should "tick" (to use another word in the thread title) are the ones that your tour guide tells you were the ones that were making the sound that you were listening to earlier that day. That's what it's all about isn't it?:-O :t:
 
andyadcock said:
One of my most memorable nights ever was spent in the Morrocan Sahara in the 90's. The desert was lit by a full moon, an experience in it's own right but we were surounded by calling Stone Curlews, a wonderfully, atmospheric night.

A
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Reminds me of a time I worked for the RSPB on species protection for Stone-curlews. The first part of the project was to census sites where birds were nesting. The only way to do this accurately (with a bird which is often very difficult to see) is to go out at night time and play a tape in as many locations as possible. (I should stress I was licensed to do this because it's otherwise illegal.)

During the first year of the census, I'd gone night after night without finding a bird so was beginning to get a little fed up.

On one evening, my tape playing was no longer met with silence but, as Andy says, the atmospheric reply of a Stone-curlew. A truly fantastic sound.
I needed to pin down the site, so triangulation was the obvious way.

The "truly fantastic sound" soon turned to disappointment when I discovered a parked car with doors and windows open, with a Stone-curlew call booming out from the CD player.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the large burly shape I saw standing next to the car put me off remonstrating with him! :eek!:

Peter
 
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