At 09:48 PM 3/9/02 -0500, you wrote:
>For frogs I'm not sure the same rule applies. In bird recording it's
>usually the case that a single, or very limited number of birds are
>recorded. A extra is noticeable. In Frog recording it's actually more
>difficult to find just a few frogs of one species calling nicely. More
>typical is several species, or lots of one species. Or mixed with
>entirely different calls, like insect calls. What's more, the various
>calls sound different when in mixed chorus, so learning to identify them
>that way is important.
I completely agree and extend your suggestions to birds you usually hear in
mixed flocks - as far as I know there is no software or sound products that
enable learning this discrimination. I recall Chan Ribbon, in 1957, next
to about 700,000 mixed blackbird roosting (evening) population, explaining
to me which sounds were the starlings (most), which the cowbirds and which
(rarest) were Red-winged Blackbirds. I was and am still amazed at this
man, although there is a long impressive line ahead of me.
Flocks especially noteworthy are roosting flocks and nesting colonies of
swallows and herons. I have a recording from Stone Harbor, NH in 1957 and
I have no idea which of the 8 or so species visible make which sounds -
except for the occasional gull. This is a great point you make, Walt, I
wish now Stone Harbor was in stereo.
Of course frogs in general produce calls with the evolutionary idea of
attracting adults of their species, whereas songbirds mostly use sound to
repel their own kind. Roosting bird sounds presumably are in the
attracting department, like frogs.
How would you classify the human noise at a football game?
my very best,
Marty Michener
MIST Software Associates
75 Hannah Drive, Hollis, NH 03049
coming soon : EnjoyBirds bird identification software.
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