Great Blue Herons at Sapsucker Woods

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Great Blue Herons at Sapsucker Woods

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Rough Roads and Point Counts

Many hours were spent on some pretty rough roads this past month - scouring hillsides for the exact spot matching the UTM of the recommended point counts.

'De-commissioned' logging roads come in various levels of de-commissionment! Thank goodness the return trip always seems shorter than the neck-jarring, bladder-pounding ride to the 'point (just short) of no return' - that final wash-out you really really really cannot pass.

"Thou shalt not pass!" declared Gandalf in the caverns of Kazadum. But the Balrog was not convinced, not until the rock bridge was smote from under him and he tumbled into the rent of his revenge.

"De-commissioning" in British Columbia seems to mean simply ripping out all the culverts leaving wide, deep, muddy rents every 50 metres in other-wise sedate old roads. Someday, trees will grow on those roads, but not this day.

Twenty years from now, when the next Breeding Bird Atlas is proclaimed, saplings will hinder any chance of finding these point counts again, won't they? Can you picture this septuagenarian on a dirt bike? A tough leather jacket will be my only defence against prickly pine needles whipping past.

Never mind the roads the map says should be there but don't actually exist! We're already using game trails to find those ones!

Personal Use Sonograms

To help me learn bird songs, I have taken screen shots of sonograms off websites and printed them:

• sonogram

1. find one on web
2. alter viewing options, (if possible) such as upper limit of frequency displayed and
3. NOTE: try to use the same upper limit and time scale so you can compare sonograms quickly and maybe even time songs in the wild. Try 10,000 Hz as the max frequency shown (good for warblers) and about 1 second per centimeter (good for warblers, individual phrases of vireos, some of robin-like bird's songs)

• capturing and printing

1. print screen sonogram
2. paste to new file in photo-editing program
3. desaturate so you're not using up all your ink
4. print

• to take birding - put your 6 inch by 4 inch printed sonograms in a photo album such as the two-to-a page slide-in ones - sonogram in the top slot, index card for notes in the bottom!

Bird Songs, Words to Describe 'em - Working

A 'complex' bird song is made up of one or more phrases?

A song is complex if it has more than one tone, discernable elements and / or different or variable phrases?

A 'confusing' bird song is one that sounds very similar to another species and needs to be studied to be able to tell them apart. lol.

This Yellow-rumped Warbler sonogram shows a one-phrase song. Remember: not all individual Yellow-rumps (aka Butter Butts) sing this song; probably not a good example because of the Myrtle's / Audubon's lumping but a good example of a one-phrased song with a monotonous trill.

Aspects of a song

• pitch
• duration / length
• tempo / speed
• phrase, phrasing
• transition / change to next phrase
• melody
• song type
• voice
• rhythm

Aspects of a phrase

• pitch
• duration / length
• emphasis
• element / part
• pattern

Words that describe the aspects:

• moderate - pitch
• rising / ascending - phrase
• falling / descending - phrase
• pure - tone
• fast - trill
• slow - trill
• piercing - tone, voice
• melodic - voice
• variation - between, within, or of phrases
• thin / weak / soft (quiet) - tone, voice
• strong / loud - tone, voice
• pick-up tone - rhthym

Looking for words to describe the following, and for clarifying all this attempted organization.

• the transition speed between parts of a phrase