Dear all,
Can anyone help me id this sound ? It was recorded about 3 weeks ago near an
old gravel pit bordering a woodland in western Switzerland at 500m asl about
11.00 on a clear sunny morning.
The sound seemed to be coming from an elevated grassy bank immediately next to
the wood, and at the time I thought it was a small mammal in the grass, but I
realise now that it may have been in the edge of the trees. There is not much
reference material on it but my thoughts are that it may have been a call of
the European Little Owl (Athene noctua). I heard it calling intermittently like
this over the space of 30 mins or so, the sound carried a good 500+ meters
which is when I first heard it and started to track it down:
http://wildechoes.org/exchange/Mystery%20extract.mp3
No filtering or EQ applied this is straight out the can.
This is not the normal A.noctua "song" but seems to correspond quite closely
with the excitement call on this page:
http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Athene&species=noctua
It would be rare but not impossible in that particular location, but I have not
encountered this sound before.
All help gratefully received !
Thanks
Chris
http://wildechoes.org
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