Re: What's this sound on this track? Bird or equipment fault?

["Avocet" madl74]

> I recorded the sound of a quail being flushed, and there's this odd,
> very brief squeak ...

Peter,

I slowed down the recording 4 and then 16 times and listened on a loop
play. There is a double vocalisation near the start, and what is
almost certainly a second double vocalistion as it departed. The
rhythm of its wingbeats was unbroken and there are no gaps except for
very brief pauses between the wingbeats so I don't suspect a hiccup in
the recording. The clincher was listening to the reverb which
accompanied both vocalisations and remained consistent.

If it was mic or mount noise, I would have expected an LF blip at that
point, so I reckon it's all bird generated sounds. The wingbeats are
all "hard" suggesting that they may have been touching or at least
strongly "feathering" as is normal with take-off flight like a chicken
or pigeon. This can be quite squeaky sometimes, but not like the
vocalisations.

David

David Brinicombe
North Devon, UK
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce