can anyone identify this nocturnal noise maker?

[Zedsquared]

Hi Folks,
last week I was on holiday on the isle of Harris (lovely place, wild and pretty much unspoiled) and heard this very strange noise on a few nights.
My good lady and I were quite puzzled by it, it sounds something like a bleating lamb but isn't.
The creature involved seems fairly fearless (or obsessed with calling a mate this time of year perhaps) and we could approach to what seemed like quite a short distance, nothing was visible
however and the source definately seemed to fly overhead at one point, though mostly it seemed to be ground based (scrub, heather, grass, rock, about 200m from the seashore).

The sound is difficult to pinpoint by ear but we're fairly sure that what at first seemed like one source flying about was probably two or three of them having a 'conversation'.

I had some sound recording gear with me and you can find a short (450k) MP3 of the noise in question here:

http://www.zedsquared.pwp.blueyonder...ightnoise0.mp3

It's been filtered a little to get rid of wind noise somewhat, if anyone really wants I can put up some unprocessed wav files but they're a bit big

So to recap: It's nocturnal, small enough not to be seen easily in the half moonlight, fairly oblivious to human company, is around in the far north of scotland in early spring, and sounds like a flying lamb Any ideas anyone?


Cheers,
Robin.

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Robin. Welcome to WAB

The bird is a Snipe doing its display. The noise is produced by air (as the bird decends) going over its tail feathers.

[Deer Stalker]

Oh Yeh....its called 'drumming' by the way.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by Zedsquared

Hi Folks,
last week I was on holiday on the isle of Harris (lovely place, wild and pretty much unspoiled) and heard this very strange noise on a few nights.
My good lady and I were quite puzzled by it, it sounds something like a bleating lamb but isn't.
The creature involved seems fairly fearless (or obsessed with calling a mate this time of year perhaps) and we could approach to what seemed like quite a short distance, nothing was visible
however and the source definately seemed to fly overhead at one point, though mostly it seemed to be ground based (scrub, heather, grass, rock, about 200m from the seashore).

The sound is difficult to pinpoint by ear but we're fairly sure that what at first seemed like one source flying about was probably two or three of them having a 'conversation'.

I had some sound recording gear with me and you can find a short (450k) MP3 of the noise in question here:

http://www.zedsquared.pwp.blueyonder...ightnoise0.mp3

It's been filtered a little to get rid of wind noise somewhat, if anyone really wants I can put up some unprocessed wav files but they're a bit big

So to recap: It's nocturnal, small enough not to be seen easily in the half moonlight, fairly oblivious to human company, is around in the far north of scotland in early spring, and sounds like a flying lamb Any ideas anyone?


Cheers,
Robin.

Sounds like a Snipe to me (aka Heather-bleater). Sound is made in the air, by the bird diving and the air rushing through it's outer tail feathers, which are held apart from the others. Apparent ground based sounds presumably just that it is difficult to tell where some sounds come from, especially if you are not expecting them to come from the ground (or maybe there was a lamb there as well!).

Ah - beaten to it by Deer Stalker!

thunder

[Zedsquared]

Thanks Folks,
that was swift! You wouldn't believe how much googling I went through earlier before deciding to ask in the proper place

I did consider snipe but our bird book didn't mention night time displays (between midnight and two in the morning!) and we were psycho acoustically convinced that most of the time the noise was coming from something sitting on the ground, not diving through the air

Many thanks for solving that enigma,
Robin.


P.S. if anyone want's a place to stay for peaceful wildlife spotting I can recommend the place we were at, cabhalan cottage, Harris, there's a resident otter (or two maybe) in the bay and it's at least 1/2 a mile from the nearest habitation. Plenty of waders around too.
I'd go a bit later than we did though, not as much life about yet as I've seen on harris on previous trips.

[john.otter]

Originally Posted by Zedsquared

Hi Folks,
last week I was on holiday on the isle of Harris (lovely place, wild and pretty much unspoiled) and heard this very strange noise on a few nights.
My good lady and I were quite puzzled by it, it sounds something like a bleating lamb but isn't.
The creature involved seems fairly fearless (or obsessed with calling a mate this time of year perhaps) and we could approach to what seemed like quite a short distance, nothing was visible
however and the source definately seemed to fly overhead at one point, though mostly it seemed to be ground based (scrub, heather, grass, rock, about 200m from the seashore).

The sound is difficult to pinpoint by ear but we're fairly sure that what at first seemed like one source flying about was probably two or three of them having a 'conversation'.

I had some sound recording gear with me and you can find a short (450k) MP3 of the noise in question here:

http://www.zedsquared.pwp.blueyonder...ightnoise0.mp3

It's been filtered a little to get rid of wind noise somewhat, if anyone really wants I can put up some unprocessed wav files but they're a bit big

So to recap: It's nocturnal, small enough not to be seen easily in the half moonlight, fairly oblivious to human company, is around in the far north of scotland in early spring, and sounds like a flying lamb Any ideas anyone?


Cheers,
Robin.

[werdnal]

Sounds similar to this

http://www.scricciolo.com/eurosongs/....gallinago.wav

Which I found on a "sounds" search page, labelled as a snipe!

[mrs fish]

Fascinating stuff, welcome to WAB Zedsquared