Hi Chris,
Thanks for the ideas! There's a Hoopoe just along the coast in Dorset right
now, so it's not totally impossible. A few seem to show up here every winter
for some reason, sadly their long-term survival rate isn't very high. As you
say it's more of a "knocking" call than the hoopoe, but the pitch and timing
are remarkably similar, enough to make me wonder if the phone's microphone
and heavy audio compression might be mangling the call. Magpie, Crow and
Raven are also all possibilities in the area. Also Pheasant which make a
"cuk-cuk, cuk-cuk" call, but the tempo is usually faster.
Cheers,
Tom
On 19 December 2010 09:47, chrishails50 <> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hello Tom - thanks for your interesting sounds. On the first one it is
> weird I agree. If I heard it in my neck of the woods I would go looking for
> a Hoopoe, but Devon in Dec I suppose is unlikely ! It is quite a knocking
> noise but I don't think it is a woodpecker - my mind turns towards Magpie/
> Crow/ Raven they can all make funny hollow sounds - but I can't get nearer
> than that.
>
> For Tenerife I cannot even guess I'm afraid !
>
> Chris
> http://www.wildechoes.org
>
>
> --- In <naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "Tom Williams" <> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Here's a couple of puzzles for anyone with time on their hands this
> weekend.
> >
> > The first was passed to me by my father for identification - I think he
> recorded it on his mobile phone, which just goes to show that almost
> everyone is now carrying recording devices capable of capturing sounds of
> good enough quality for identification purposes!
> >
> > It was recorded a couple of days ago in woodland on one of the lowland
> heaths in East Devon. He believes the bird was up in the trees, although he
> couldn't see it, and it called repeatedly for around 5 minutes. Neither he
> nor I has ever heard anything quite like it - at a guess I'd say it was some
> kind of gamebird?
> >
> > http://soundcloud.com/pterodaktyl/mystery-sound-1
> >
> > The second sound is one of my recordings. I made it on the 10th December
> at around 2,000m on the northern slopes of Mount Teide on Tenerife in the
> Canary Islands. The bird was quite a long way off and I was using the
> built-in mics on my LS-10, so I had to do some filtering to raise the call
> above the background noise. The terrain was best described as high-altitude
> desert - volcanic sand and gravel with low scrubby bushes and plants dotted
> around.
> >
> > http://soundcloud.com/pterodaktyl/mystery-sound-2
> >
> > Most of the birds on Tenerife were fairly quiet due to the time of year,
> but it was fascinating to hear familiar species like Robin, Blue Tit and
> Chiffchaff producing almost unrecognisable songs and calls!
> >
> > Any help would be much appreciated.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Tom
> >
>
>
>
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