Hi tweets

Jack Bowling writes:

(snip)
> Incidentally, Black Scoters are the only scoter species
>that "sings". Actually croons is the better word. When you get a whole bunch
>going it is really quite eerie. It is a mellow hollow whistling about the same
>pitch as the cooing of a Rock Dove but in two separate phrases, the first
>with an ascending part and the second descending. They may have already
>paired off, though, and singing decreased. This is audible for quite a
>distance.

No Las Vegas glitz here, folks. A gathering of male Black Scoters (BLSC)
sounds more like a morning diner full of crapped-out gamblers nursing
hangovers and moaning about their bad luck. They'll still be singing as long
as they're flocking: the males seem to get on each other's nerves.

Verbalising the song looks something like this:
'peeeuuuuuu-pip-peeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuu', sometimes with the first note uttered
twice, and the ascend-descend slur present in the first but more marked in
the third component. Try a slow, slurred whistle somewhere between a high F
and a middle A.

It's a lovely sound on one of those calm, misty Cascadian winter days.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net