At 03:11 PM 6/26/2003, Walter Knapp wrote:
>And before any of the bird recordists get to uppity, just how many
>frogcalls can you identify to species, or insects, or mammals? I've been
>out with bird recordists, where I would hear the frogs, they would hear
>the birds, and it was real work for us to hear each other's favorite
>animal. Let alone identify them.
Boy, that's for sure! I try to learn any frog I hear or record, and I'm
getting better at it, but not nearly as good as I am with birds. Frogs are=
often nocturnal, and that makes learning them a bit more difficult. They
also tend to "sing" at very specific times and in specific conditions.
Luckily there are far fewer frog species out there than birds!
Web sites like Walter's for frogs and mine for birds are among the best
ways we have for disseminating species identifications. I have offered to
help recordists ID sounds, and I know that Walter will do the same.
Someday we'll devise the perfect heuristic "key" for sounds, but until
then, we just have to learn a bit more and slowly get more proficient.
Speaking of that key, does anyone want to try to create it? It's not easy,=
but could be very, very helpful, especially for beginners.
Doug
Doug Von Gausig
Clarkdale, Arizona, USA
Moderator
Nature Recordists e-mail group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists
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