Hi Sandy --

You?...pretty useless??? I should say NOT!!! That xeno-canto.org weblink
is an incredible goldmine, omg!! An absolute MUST for bookmarking!! Ah
ha, I think I nailed it, COOPER'S HAWK!! Kind of what I vaguely suspected.
I listened to all the other suggestions that came in, Merlin, Band-tailed
Pigeon, plus my American Kestrels and my other accipiter suspect,
Sharp-shinned Hawk. Having listened to ALL the recordings to all, the 'mystery
sound' is definitely none of those.

Cooper's Hawk would kind of make sense and if so, perhaps near a nest
(listen below) which would explain the relative infrequency that I hear the
'mystery call'. The 'sound' in question always comes from the same area, on
the other side of my backyard greenbelt and stream in the next block to the
east. I am sharing this reply and website with ALL tweeters, because
everyone should bookmark it for useful reference when baffling backyard
mysteries arise and other reasons.
_xeno-canto :: bird sounds from around the world :: cooper's hawk_
(http://www.xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=cooper's+hawk&species_nr=)

This is a direct link to just the Cooper's Hawk. Listed below are those
with the best match. Since it's hard to know exactly where you are
scrolling down the page, scroll down the page watching the right hand column to
find these "Cat.nr." numbers:
XC 14854 - Colorado - Andrew Spencer - call A
XC 71964 - BC, MX - Richard Webster - call A
XC 71966 - BC, MX - Richard Webster - call A
XC 70473 - Palmyra (**hmmm....??), New Jersey - Paul Driver - Call B --
(excellent match)
XC 71965 - BC, MX - Richard Webster - call B
XC 87970 - Tennessee - Mike Nelson - call B
XC 89666 - Tennessee - Mike Nelson - call B
XC 31144 - Michigan - Allan Chartier - call C near nest -- (excellent
match)
XC 31146 - Michigan - Allan Chartier - call C near nest -- (excellent
match)

**Palmyra??? Hmmm...., I'm leaving for a month around Palmyra come this
Thursday. A very different Palmyra I think and definitely not the New
Jersey one...rather Palmyra, the atoll, just north of the Equator ~1000 south of
Hawaii. No Cooper's Hawks there...in fact not one single land bird there
either, native, introduced, or vagrant, just seabirds and a few routine
wintering mid-tropical Pacific Alaskan shorebirds of which most or all should
be long gone by now.

If you have mystery (bird) sounds in your backyard or anywhere, or just
want to know something, go to the link above and just type in any species
into the search box. This appears to be a really handy-dandy all-in-one
website that might save you from having to wander around all over the Internet
trying to find bird songs, especially when it's an "emergency" ... like now.
Thanks Sandy!!! "Tweeters" continues to rage on as #1.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA

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In a message dated 4/15/2012 9:27:28 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
ladyhawk707 at msn.com writes:

Richard Rowlett,

Sorry, I'm pretty useless at figuring out a bird sound from a printed
description, but I am dogged at trying to identify the mystery sounds. It took
me two years to finally ID one, in my own neighborhood, for crying out
loud. It turned out that it was not some distant, unseen shorebird calling,
but the soft sounds that a group of female Evening Grosbeaks make while
hidden in the treetops.

Anyway the site below might help you. It helped me to confirm the ID of a
small flock of large shorebirds that overflew my yard in 2010. I heard an
eerie sound approaching like I had never heard before I saw the flock. I
figured they must be Whimbrel but didn't find the call in the usual online
bird ID sites. I did finally find it at this site:

_http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Falco-sparverius_
(http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Falco-sparverius)

There is a search box at the top of the page. You can use the common or
scientific name of your suspects.

Oh, it also helped us to confirm the ID of the bird we accidentally
flushed four or five times this Thursday. I wasn't expecting a Common Snipe in
the high and dry pasture, and lurking in the dense shrubbery next to a
woodpile.

Good luck,
Sandy Daniels



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