2024/03/15
This is the sound of a captured and terrified starling. It is sound one would make if being carried off by a predator. When other forms of spooking fail, playing this usually works very well, but not always and overuse can lead to it being useless. Starling's perception of sound is very frequency-specific and their mimicry can be very precise, if scratchy. They don't seem to take long to catch on that it's the same sound each time and can't be the same starling in the grasp of a predator repeatedly. I like to keep it short, so they hear less. They usually fly over to inspect, which is an opportunity to be scary again. Grackles and other birds usually around do not have much of any reaction to it, but I try not to use it when crows are near. They probably know it and are weary of me enough as is it is.
This starling had gotten food enough to become hard to spook and therefore making it very difficult to feed natives without risking inviting many more starlings to crash the party, disaster. This was recorded about 15 seconds into the alarm. The starling had flight feathers clipped, was set free and seen several times nearby for the weeks until near autumn molt.
Showing off our new 'puffy' coat!
Coast is clear...go git 'em....
Location is approximate.
Would this be a leucistic Black-capped Chickadee?
An owl couple can be heard amidst the spring peepers
And House Sparrows
Continuing- this is the same owl, she was just so beautiful I just wanted to show case the close ups separately. She let me walk right up to almost touching her, before silently winging across the yard over to the pine trees, closely followed by the 'Blue Brigade' who perched in another pine & shouted their disapproval.for the next 1/2 hour,until she obviously decided to move back further into the woods,
These Owls have the most beautiful soft looking eyes...sooo unpredator looking!
Oh my...grouse on the war path...look out!!
It’s not quiet because it’s distant; it’s just quietly going through its repertoire. Practicing?
predation on North Island Kaka
"Pet" cat killed a gray squirrel. Bad kitty!
Likely somebody's pet...eating somebody else's pet (this is "horse country" and a lot of people have chickens, goats, horses and little farms). Another chicken victim nearby https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9556838
Feral cat killing a yellow warbler in the urban area of San Cristobal
Observed hunting and eating Columbian Ground Squirrels and Yellow-pine Chipmunks. 4 feral cats observed on the property.
Feral cat hunting sparrows in the overgrown park edge.
Feral cat predating American Robin (Turdus migratorius). I found a ruffled loose robin feather in the exact vicinity this afternoon, likely from the same incident: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180042313
With Brush Rabbit prey (duplicated observation).
Scavenging on cougar kill
Evening song. A flock of White throated sparrows in a planted bamboo stand
The chorus got a lot louder as the sun set. Decodon pond
I believe this is the correct identification. There are also Spring Peepers calling along with this recording. Maybe, this is a second call (trill) of Spring Peeper?
I thought I heard a kitten and went to look for it. A coworker assisted me in searching, and she saw a frog attempting to escape a southern black racer in a nearby oak tree. We had to leave the fellow to his fate, unfortunately. The last picture was enhanced by AI and sharpened for clarity.
Video of the encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crYMNk3usOo&ab_channel=EldritchSleuth
This Red maple was uprooted and leaning against another tree. It was making a lot of creaking sounds as it rubbed against the supporting tree.
Cones crackling overhead as they open up in the heatwave
A Sassafras rubbing against a large sweetgum, producing these loud screeching sounds.
A fallen Black locust rubbing against the American sweetgum and creaking in the wind.
The sound file is not water or traffic. It's the sound of wind in a longleaf pine forest, which not many people get to hear any more.
Skip to 00:30, call starts soon after. Then there's a weird cackly call after the caws.
I walked out of my apartment building, about forty minutes before sunset, and almost immediately heard a loud fusion of bird voices. There were many hundreds, if not thousands of black birds in the tree tops nearby. At first, I mistook them to be European starlings. As I observed these birds and looked at
them with my binoculars, I realized they were grackles not starlings. In the beginning, I didn't hear their typical "grating scissor" calls; instead, I heard many shrill calls, which sounded more like starlings to my ears. Later, I was able to pick out these scissor calls. I observed these birds move from one group of trees to another. Then, they landed on a grass lawn and foraged for seeds and worms. When they took off again, thousands of wings made a loud rustling sound.
For my 10,000th observation I decided to feature this red squirrel failing to eat a peach pit.
A large flock of American crows
This chipmunk was very curious about me, and I was very curious about him.
Sounds of the bird taking off from the ground can be heard at seconds 25-26
SHaring a snack with the nuthatch.
Preet calls. Faint answer can be heard.
Good Heavens!!!! Ok, so for some unknown reason, (lol!!!), I have no idea which one this was, (since I can't see the bib), however I suspect it was 'Buddy', since he is the only one likely to dive right on in there.....& yes...he did find a peanut, (you can just see that through the glass jar,where he has the peaunut in his beak),which he left with!!! Like I said, I haven't been spending much time with them lately....(& it kinda shows??!!)