In Which the Garden's List Grows

After bleating on yesterday about my Common Scoter woes, last night I received a belated invitation to the party. At 21:55 one or more Common Scoter went overhead, making their very weird noise. On Twitter today it was likened to the squeaky sound that the action of cleaning glass can produce, and to...er...Roger Whittaker. You decide...

[Ignore the high-pitched squeaks at 5.5kHz - the wind caused some random object to do that intermittently all night]

I can safely say that 21:55 is bang in the middle of the usual naked nocmig vigil, and no doubt the Scoter was/were perfectly audible. Unfortunately a shower of rain about ten minutes earlier had driven me indoors for the night. Very annoying.

And at 23:10 this squealing creature made its gangly way across the night sky...

It's the garden's first Water Rail. Not mine, just the garden's.

And finally, at 23:16, a squadron of Oystercatchers came through. It all sounds very bog standard Oystercatchery until that excellent little flourish right at the end, which to my knowledge I've never heard them do. Very cool.

Doing this nocmig stuff really makes you listen to what you've recorded, and listen properly, with a bit of focus. It certainly is helping me to appreciate bird vocalisations more than I used to, and has been worth the trouble for that benefit alone. My list, the garden's list...who cares? Nocmig is just brilliant!