Another World

One thing that night fishing taught me years ago is that the world between sunset and dawn is a very different one. Shy creatures venture out, sounds are different - and amplified - and your fishing mates use the cover of darkness for massive pranks they wouldn't dare undertake in daylight. Still today, on a warm summer night I really enjoy lying under the stars on a bedchair, savouring the heady bouquet of waterside smells, gazing up at the myriad sparkly dots and listening to the noises. Among the noises are always many birds...

Sitting in the garden is not quite the same, though booze helps. And we have a little raised pond with a handful of rudd which occasionally splish-splosh on the surface. Yesterday evening was not too cold, so I stuck it until midnight. Among the birdy noises were two audible Whimbrel, at 21:43 and 22:12. Pukka garden tick! Yes! Then I went to bed and left the recorder running...

As the light fades and the nocmig tools emerge...

This afternoon I went through what I'd got. Here's the second Whimbrel...

I also found another Whimbrel that I hadn't heard, and this, which sounds suspiciously like a flock...

In my defense, I did pop indoors once or twice, to refresh my glass, get snacky stuff, things like that...so it is perfectly feasible that I may have been out of earshot when this happened. But wow! A flock of Whimbrel went trundling over my garden last night! This is brilliant!

Anyway, not long after I went to bed, this happened. The background 'noise' is a bit harsh, but attempts to filter it out a bit also reduced the call's raspiness. Not loud, but hopefully I've got the ID correct...

I am pretty sure that's a Dunlin, which is the 4th wader species on my nocmig list.

I'm not sure which is more fun, checking through the recording time where I had also listened, or the bit where I was asleep. I must admit, suddenly coming across a whacking great set of unexpected squiggles and blobs on the spectrogram is exciting. What's it going to be? Like the recent Barn Owl and Oystercatcher, for example. But I can't say I enjoy getting gripped off by a little black box.

It's an entertaining dilemma to have though...