Good guesses, you all. Martyn got closest to the actual location guessing M=
alheur wildlife refuge which is only about 50 miles away. You all got Weste=
rn US right - the Pacific chorus frogs sure give that away. The killdeer, =
ducks, coyotes, Pacific chorus frogs, and short-eared owl may be found toge=
ther in many habitats throughout the Pacific Northwest. "Coastal" was a fa=
irly common guess and the only thing that would not fit that picture (besid=
es no Pacific Ocean roar in the background) is the species giving the droni=
ng chorus, which I believe is Great Basin Spadefoot. Can anyone corroborate=
on that? It was my first time to hear them.
Looking at EPA ecoregion maps, the area can be narrowed down as North Ameri=
can Deserts: Cold Deserts: Northern Basin and Range: High Desert Wetlands.=
In some years, this desert basin features a vast network of interconnected =
lakes (Warner Wetlands) rimmed by sage covered dunes. For the last three ye=
ars however, this area has been pretty much all dried up except for some mu=
d and sporadic seasonal pooling of rain water. The streams in the mountain=
s that feed the area are running higher than normal this spring, so I am ho=
peful the lakes may begin rebound.
Tom and David, I think the "piping" or "~3.5 KHz" calls you are hearing may=
be killdeer, and Kevin's comments on species seems to support that.
I didn't start recording until the chorus was full swing, so I don't have t=
he beginning transition, but the recording does get interestingly sleepy la=
ter as the drone slows down to a few snoring individuals. Rob is right abo=
ut the mics being positioned above sand or water =96 dried silty lake botto=
m (or desert playa) actually. On the tripod the mics were about 6 feet high=
.
Kevin, last year you pointed out a male short-eared owl call in a recording=
I made last year just a few miles from this very spot. I only recorded on=
e night this trip, but I have the short-eared owl calling like that from du=
sk to dawn in periodic bouts lasting 5 minutes to one hour with from 10 sec=
onds to two minutes between individual calls. There is also what sounds lik=
e a flamulated owl through a lot of the night, though it could be a long-ea=
red owl. A burrowing owl also calling with the pacific chorus frogs closer =
to dawn in the recording - likely the same owl that was calling beside my t=
ent most of the night.
John Hartog
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause
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