Friday 14 May 2010

Friday at the Flicks (Bread, Blackbird, Tadpoles) + some batty sounds

A few days ago I put out a small piece of bread to see which bird would be the first to notice it.



I make no apologies for yet another video of a Blackbird singing. This time I managed to get a clear view of a local singing in broad daylight. Usually they are camera shy.



Last weekend I managed to get to an aquatic centre and pick up a new tub of Koi floating sticks for the tadpoles. During the cold weather I thought that only a few of them had survived but as soon as the Sun comes out dozens of them can been seen in the nursery pond.




At dusk yesterday I noticed a bat or two flitting round the Leylandii next door so I dug out the bat detector to see if I could pick up any of their echo location sounds. Not a brilliant recording as it took a while for me to tune in to them and then they moved on. Also I had it too loud and the recording was very hissy so I spent a while with GoldWave processing the file. At the same time I was able to cut out the long sections where no bat was within range.

Listen!

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you. I must spend some time catching up on other blogs. I am well behind as this seems to have been a busy week.

8 comments:

  1. I never tire of hearing a Blackbird sing John. Lovely sound.

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  2. Drat - wouldn't you know that I have lost the sound on my computer? I'll have to come back later on another computer.

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  3. That blackbird song is fascinating. No two phrases are the same. He listens between songs for a reply. As a student of animal behaviour I have a growing interest in the behaviour and intelligence of birds. There is definitely some communication going on there, if I was a lady blackbird I would be impressed!

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  4. Hello Keith. They sing on and off all day here and the song is so very loud.

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  5. Hello Wilma - that's the beauty of PCs for you ;) They ha ve a mind of their own at times.

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  6. Hello Matron. There are a large number of Blackbirds round here. Often there are three within a hundred feet or so all singing. They often pause to listen to a rival.
    I saw on a nature programme on the idiot lantern which explained that the voice box of a bird is lower down in the chest than ours. They can pass air over their two 'vocal chords' separately to produce two ranges of notes, one higher than the other, which they can use independently or mix together. No wonder some birds have such complex songs.

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  7. John, The Bat recording is grand, had Molly climbing on the table! Where did I put the screen cleaners?

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  8. A very entertaining Friday at the Flicks accompanied by nature's soundtracks. The tadpoles love that stuff, don't they? From one angle, though, they looked like mice! Eek... ;) I bet they will grow up to be super frogs. :)

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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