Hello Dave, I agree, although I do have a phone app to help identify birds and use the RSPB website, I myself to keep notes of what the bird calls and songs sound like. E.g. 'teacher teacher' Great tit and for me a Greenfinch sounds like an alarm. It is all open to interpretation. With regards to the yapping owl i'm guessing short eared owl?
In reply to Charlotte A:
Hi Dave, I always enjoy reading your posts however infrequent they are. You have a way with words which always make me smile. Any more interesting encounters with the Rackelhahn?
Describing bird calls is tricky but if mnemonics works for you then it's as good as anything. I tend to try to describe the sound in words rather as Charlotte has suggested. Trouble is it doesn't always convey the same meaning to someone else.
Charlotte may be right about the owl but do you get Short-eared Owls in Switzerland except perhaps in winter? Another possibility which sounds like a yapping small dog is the call (not the song) of a Little Owl. I'm pretty sure they are resident in Switzerland.
Click here to play this audio clip
Marco Preziosi, XC264353. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/264353.
What do you think? Does that fit your mnemonic?
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Regards,Tony
My Flickr Photostream
In reply to TeeJay:
Hello Charlotte, hello TeeJay.
Charlotte - we too use an app (the RSPB app for Android). It's a big help. With regards to the dog-owl, I've been fortunate enough to do a great deal of owl-listening (and a bit of owl-spotting) in Tuscany since my original post, and for me it's a Little Owl (saw one hunting just a few days ago close to Gavorrano). But I've recently decided (thank you TeeJay for reminding me of the Rackelhahn, and not of the Lapwings I once "saw" up in the top of a Black Poplar...) that I can never be sure. I find that quite nice actually.
TeeJay - thank you; that's very kind of you. No more Rackelhahns I'm afraid; it's been a busy year (hence my absence on these forums), although we're hoping to get up to Wasserscheide to watch the migration sometime in the next month... I'm sure they are waiting for us, in their Black Grouse fancy-dress. Nice photos (today) or a Pallid Harrier up there.
We've just spent a week puzzling over hybrid buntings (in between trips to the beach, of course). There are always mysteries, aren't there?
Regarding mnemonics for calls - I generally do the same. Blackcaps (when I first heard them) were saying (among other things) "I'm going home again", and I hear that tiny signature in almost every Blackcap call (and we have more than a few nesting in the garden theses days). Last week, Cetti's Warblers (seen at the Padule di Scarlino) were saying "Me? A Cetti's I am; a Cetti's I am", before going on to say something else. Probably in Italian.
My yapping owls were in Italy (that's them on the link; thank you). I'm not sure if we get them here (I've just checked ornitho.ch and there have been no sightings over the past five days. Or there have, but they are hidden). We have Tengmalm's Owls up behind us in the Jura, and we hear Tawny Owls even from the garden on occasion (and see them circling the house).
But despite all the technology, Black Woodpeckers still remind me of 1970s trim-phones, and occasionally - and with obvious irritation - call out to their friends, who are always called Ian.
Best regards -
Dave
In reply to Dave - CH:
Hi Dave, thanks for your response which is as entertaining as ever.
I'm glad we sorted out the yapping owl. I'm not surprised it was in Tuscany as Little Owls love the nooks and crevices in old stone farmhouses and barns. I always think they look extremely grumpy when you do get a view of them.
I spent a week in Switzerland on a birding and butterfly trip last June. We were based in Evolène in the Valais canton. Pretty little village with views of Dent Blanche still covered in snow which turned almost gold in the setting sun. Butterflies were not as prolific as they had seen in previous years - apparently they'd had a late spring as in most of western Europe. Birding was pretty good though ranging from Bee-eaters in the Rhone valley to Alpine Accentors up on the Grande Dixence Dam. Of course we had to make the obligatory trip to the top of the Gornergrat on the rack and pinion railway. Luckily, it was a sparkling clear day so the view of the Matterhorn was spectacular. It's been many years since I was last in Switzerland and I enjoyed it very much.
I'll leave you with a shot of the ubiquitous Alpine Chough which pestered customers for scraps at the Gornergrat café.
Don't leave it so long next time. Always interesting to hear what you've seen and any photos welcome.
Hi Tony,
I confess I've never been lucky enough to see a Little Owl that close. The one I saw last week just flew by in the dusk looking, well, little.
Super shot of the Chough, thank you. We last saw them while walking a few weeks back over by Frütigen in the Bernese Oberland. My partner was higher up a few years back searching for, and finding, in quite spectacular fashion, Lammergeiers (won't check the spelling on that one...) Jealous Dave.
Glad you had a good time over here. For the much-travelled I often suspect there are better places, but we're pleasantly situated close to the country's largest reed beds, at the foot of the Jura (which makes migration an interesting time of year (Honey Buzzard on migration over the garden this morning)), and not so far from the Alps. We also have a neighbour who feeds Black Kites in the garden, and had done for decades. Our own personal performance from May to early August. We also get some interesting phenomena from time to time. 10-15 million Bramblings anyone? (Although the ca 1.3 million over in Fribourg the year before was, given the context, more beautiful still).
Should you ever plan on visiting the Seeland area (Neuchâtel to Biel-Bienne) let me know and I'll prepare you a list of places to visit (and point you at the Peregrines (just down the road)).
I will never forget that our passion for birds truly began when we posted on these forums asking someone to identify a Shellduck. Then we posted a few weeks later asking someone to identify an entirely unrelated bird. It was the same Shellduck but in flight. You have all been a great help and resource to us, and we appreciate that very much.
Regarding my absences, 'it comes with the mileage' as a good friend says. Once one hits fifty, things get a little complicated, if it's not for us, its for our parents. Or so I've found.
Really sounds like a tiny dog! Awesome