Subject: Sharpies and Songs
Date: Jul 04 18:31:27 1996
From: Jerry Blinn - 76506.3100 at CompuServe.COM


Eric Greenwood inquired about available WAV files of bird songs. While I know of
none available on the net, I will offer the information that all the bird songs
(500+) on the Peterson's CD-ROM are stored in WAV files on the CD. So, for
personal use, if you own the CD, you can do what you want with them. They are
copyrighted, of course, by both the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, and Cornell
Labs. The bad news: like all the bird songs on non-audio CD-ROMS (the ones with
pictures), they are stored in 16 bit compressed form, resulting in serious,
sometimes terrible, quality problems.

Hugh Jennings asked about the "suuweet" call he's hearing, and how to tell if
its a Western (Pacific-slope) Flycatcher or a Hutton's Vireo. If the call is
like you whistling for your dog, ~unbroken~ downward and then upward in pitch,
but of course ~much~, ~much~ thinner and higher in pitch, then it's probably the
flycatcher. The Vireo's call tends to be either broken in the middle, or to have
a more abrupt transition from the downward to upward notes. And it is not nearly
as thin. (All this in my limited experience) Try listening to the calls on the
Peterson's Western Bird Songs CD set (the audio CDs). (We won't consider the
so-called Cordilleran FC call, which ~is~ supposed to have a break in the
middle.)

Sharpies in sharp stuff: Peggi Rodgers related a sharpie hunting in thorns. When
we lived on Mercer Island, I watched a sharpie crash into a very dense, and
particularly thorny, holly tree. The noise was awful, leaves flew everywhere,
and small branches were broken. The sharpie emerged with a robin. Said robin was
probably feeling very safe and snug in there...

Jerry


E-mail from: Jerry Blinn, 04-Jul-1996