A friend sent me the following posting this morning raising an interesting
question. I send it along for comment (with his permission) -- the beach
is at the south end of the Sound:


So, I'm having my morning cup of tea at the beach yesterday, watching a
group of white-winged scoters dive for crabs. An otter slips into the
water nearby and swims out to grab a duck for breakfast. But, the
scoters spot the otter in time and take off, uttering an alarm call: a
distinctive repeated sequence of four sounds, like
"er.er.er.er.....er.er.er.er...." A seagull hears this and flies over, making
the same call, same sequence, only higher and squeakier. The seagull
does this once or twice. This attracts other gulls, and they mob the otter,
making more typical seagull screams, until the otter leaves the water.
Later, two otters swim by in the opposite direction, scaring off a scoter
and later a female bufflehead. Scoter makes the same er.er.er.er... call,
and so does the bufflehead: sped up, in pitch between the scoter and
the seagull, but still the same, distinct call sequence. So, whaddya
know? Any pointers to more info on cross-species communication, if
that's what it was? Do birds in common habitats with common threats
have a common ("pidgen") language?


dale goble
moscow