shorebirds

Songs and calls of some New York State birds

Other Shorebirds

Files are 22kHz .au unless otherwise specified. File lengths are given in kB.
Images are adapted from drawings by Chester A. Reed, B. S. in Chapman.

Black-crowned Night Heron
Nycticorax nycticorax
``A flat quok! or quark!'' (Peterson) 17kB
Long Island, May 1999.


Great Egret
Ardea alba
Very deep, low gravelly kroow, ..., fading at end'' (Sibley) 119kB
Long Island, May 2001.


Killdeer 38 kB
Charadrius vociferus
Killdeer 28 kB
Long Island, March 1999.


Piping Plover 40kB
Charadrius melodus
Peep-lo (Peterson) 19kB
"A plaintive whistle" (Peterson) 33kB
Two Piping Plovers facing off 99kB
Long Island, July 1997.


Semipalmated Sandpiper 40kB
Caladris pusilla
Long Island, April 2002.

Semipalmated Sandpiper 62kB MP3 file
Semipalmated Sandpiper 291kB MP3 file
Semipalmated Sandpiper 540kB MP3 file
Long Island, April 2004.


Western Sandpiper 316kB MP3file
Caladris mauri
Long Island, April 2004.



American Woodcock
Scolopax minor
"a nasal beezp"(Peterson) kB MP3 file

Woodcock: Note the tiny prelude to each beezp. Freqency range 0-7350Hz.
Long Island, Spring 2005

Woodcock's aerial courtship display. The display usually lasts around one and a half minutes. These recordings were made using a 13" parabolic reflector but the signal/noise ratio is still very poor. The punctuated band of noise at 2700Hz is the Spring Peepers.
Click on sonograms for a larger image.
1. Beginning of display 177kB

The last beezp usually flatter than the rest: (beeap), and is followed by the sound of the wings during takeoff.

sonogram
2. "a series of trills produced by wings during ascent''(Audubon 1) 216kB

sonogram
3. "during descent low whistled notes with a liquid, `kissing' quality, normally in groups of three: chew-chew-chew, chip-chip-chip, chew-chew-chew, chip-chip-chip." (Audubon 1) 139kB

Clicking on this image leads to the sonogram of two "groups," from a recording on Long Island, Spring 2005. Frequency range 0-11025Hz.

sonogram

 

  4. "the courship call terminates abrubtly upon landing" (Audubon 1) 211 kB
and the next series of bzeeps begins.

 

  sonogram

Condensed version 301kB

Sometimes the ``low whistled notes" start right after takeoff.

sonogram
Woodbridge, CT, April 2001.

Greater Yellowlegs
Tringa melanoleuca
Flight call 18 kB MP3 file
Flight call 18 kB MP3 file
"a loud ringing deew deew deew" (Sibley)
When disturbed 111 kB MP3 file
Long Island, April 2006.


Willet
Catoptrophorus semipalmatus
Call Mp3 file, 46 kB
``a musical, repetitious pill-will-willet (Peterson) Mp3 file, 141 kB
Barn Island, Stonington CT, June 2003





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Tony Phillips
Math Dept SUNY Stony Brook
tony@math.sunysb.edu
April 10 2004