Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 02:45:37 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Bicknell's Thrush in Davidsonville, Anne Arundel County, MD Comments: To: voice@capaccess.org, marvadel@egroups.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi All - This morning (Sunday, 5/14/2000) I walked out the front door at about 6am to see what was happening bird-wise in the yard and vicinity and was immediately greeted by a singing thrush from the edge of the woods across the street. The first thing I was struck by was how loud the song was. Clearly not a (resident) Wood Thrush, nor a Swainson's/Hermit (not ascending, no long introductory note), my first gestalt impression (based on no real experience!) was Bicknell's ... it just didn't sound right at all for a Gray-cheeked. There seemed to be two birds singing, one in the aforementioned woods and another further away, back behind our house. The volume level of the song competed with the local Wood Thrushes. I listened for a while, noting the descending "in harmony" call and paying attention to the end of the call to note whether it rose, stayed level, or dropped off. My sense was that it stayed rather level. The call note reminded me more of the call of a Great-crested Flycatcher than anything else (coincidentally, Great-crested were calling in the area, but the calls were different (louder, etc.) and they came from higher up in the trees, not down at ground-level and from the same area as the thrush's song). The habitat is the edge of deep woods, ravines, but no active streams in the immediate vicinity ... about 1/2 mile from the head waters of the South River. I know that Bicknell's is a significantly later migrant than Gray-cheeked, but don't have the actual date ranges for our area. I believe we are "in the window" on 5/14 (?). I came back inside and checked the calls of Bicknell's and Gray-cheeked on my Thayer's 2.5 CD-ROM software. Clearly not a Gray-cheeked, the cadence and quality was noticeable different. I woke up Barbara and headed back out to listen some more. After listening, I suggested to Barbara that she check the Thayer's software, too. After a while, I came back inside and from the PC she said, "Why isn't it a Veery?". My jaw dropped ... good question ... I never considered that. Clearly this was the vocalization ID problem ... Bicknell's or Veery ... not Bicknell's or Gray-cheeked. Why hadn't I considered Veery? Probably two reasons ... (1) we have never had Veerys in the yard-vicinity before, ever ... but on several occasions we have had Gray-cheekeds, including one that was calling in the yard in May of last year (I tried to make that one into a Bicknell's, but couldn't). Also, (2) it just did not strike me as a Veery. So, Bicknell's or Veery ... what's the problem, just get a look at it. Wrong. Back outside, with cheap tape recorder in hand. Recorded a few calls (on the tape they are very faint); I noted that the bird sang at two volume levels, one very loud and the other very soft--basically the same song, however. Then, into the woods to try a get a visual. Well, the bird disappeared. No more calls, no visual. The other bird had stopped, prior to this, plus it was now getting "late"--around 7 am (is this really Phil Davis talking?) During the day, I pulled out all the references I had on Bicknell's and mentally reviewed the encounter. For everyone's info, besides the Thayer's CD-ROM, Bicknell's is also on the following audio CDs: Stokes Eastern More Birding by Ear, East Also, there is a very complete Canadian web site with lots of information on Bicknell's Thrush, including six different vocalizations. The URL is: http://www.ns.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/bicknells_thrush/e/index.html From the web site, I determined that the bird was singing it's "regular" song, and one or more versions of it's softer songs. The call that reminded me of the Great-crested's is the one called the "weeer" call on the web site: http://www.ns.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/bicknells_thrush/e/audio.html I did not hear any of the calls that are more like the Veery's call (the "Beeeaaa" call on the web site). Some time later, I'll TRY to pull the faint recording from my tape into my PC and see if I'm able to produce a sonogram from it (I sort of doubt it ...). I stayed outside for an hour and a half at dusk this evening, hoping the bird(s) was still around and to see if it would start vocalizing again ... no luck. I'll try again early in the morning. I feel pretty good about this, but if anyone has any feedback to pass long, please do. Well, have both Great-horned and Barred Owls calling outside at the moment ... Good night ! Phil ================================== Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com ================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================