Grateful thanks, Rombout. Yes, Coot or Moorhen were what had come to
mind (certainly not LEO), but what puxxled me was the night-flying,
that it seems to perch in a tree, and that there's no water nearby. It
also seems to be a fairly permanent inhabitant as I've heard it in the
same area -- roosting place and flying around -- all three years I've
spent nights out. But if you KNOW this specific contact call I take
your word for it!!
Sadly I can't reach the page with your explanation... These daytime
birds flying at night is curious -- some nights at least half a dozen
Grey Herons fly over (whooosh, whoosh, whoosh), at about hourly
intervals. I've even heard one crashing into a tree.
With luck I may be able to put the question finally to rest with a
night-vision gadget that should be turning up soon. It's for the owls,
of course -- didn't think I'd be looking for hooting Coots! I hope
they have ir-reflective retinas.
Romillyh
--- In "Fam. de Wijs" <>
wrote:
>
> Dear Romillyh,
>
> This is a Moorhen. Rails on migration or dispersing do so at night and
> perform calls trying to contact others. Since quite some birders do
not know
> these calls well and were wondering what such UFO-birds might be,
some Dutch
> birders have in the 1960's considered Long-eared Owl an option. This
tale
> went on and on and nowadays is difficult to get eradicated.
>
> This applies to both Moorhen and Coot, your bird was a Moorhen. I
tried to
> explain this, especially for Coot, on a website some time ago, see
> http://www.home.zonnet.nl/myotis/owlcoot.htm. The Dutch version of
this site
> has been updated since, but this English version has not yet, but
will, I
> hope, explain things a bit more.
>
> Rombout de Wijs
>
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