From: Lang Elliott <>
>
> I have very good recordings of an adult doing the peeping and then switching
> to the throaty call at the end. I was very close to this bird's nest. It is
> possible, of course, that it is not an alarm call, but that was my
> interpretation.
About a mile south of this nest I passed another. That one is on a snag
about 10-15' high on one side of a tiny island separated from shore by
about 100' of shallow water. At the shore and tied up to the island were
7 boats, and several dozen people were playing vollyball or something
like it in the shallow water. Lots of running around, splashing and so
on. None were actually on the island. There is a chick in that nest and
the adult did look alarmed. Kept dropping off the nest and circling.
But, the only calls it gave were the peeping, not this throaty call. It
would seem if a alarm call was necessary that would be a occasion.
Note we'd idled past that nest on our way into the small inlet behind
the island a few weeks ago, and were ignored. You have to pass fairly
close to get in the inlet. Like maybe 50' from the nest. That's much
closer than I was to the nest in the recording, where I was never closer
than about 200' at closest drift, and mostly more.
I'm always reluctant to assign emotions to animals. Work on the basis of
behavior. It's a call of interest, because I've not run into it before.
Walt
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