# What bird was I hearing?



## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

Laying in bed last night when it was completely dark outside we heard a bird in a nearby tree we have never heard before in all the 20 years we have lived here, which is a house surrounded on all four sides by fields and woodland. I can't begin to describe the sound but this morning I went on to the RSPB website to listen to those bird sounds I thought it MIGHT be ie., any of the owl family, a Nightjar and a Woodcock but none sounded like what we had heard. Even tried a Bat website with no luck. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks


----------



## SpeedyDux (Jul 13, 2007)

I've been fooled into thinking I have been listening to a bird whose song is unknown to me, at dusk. But then it usually turns out to be a male Starling. They have such an enormous repertoire of calls and songs and it varies so much from individual bird to bird. One that lives close to me sometimes mimics a woodpecker's call. 


SD


----------



## BwB (Dec 5, 2009)

Nightingale ?


----------



## Jodi1 (Mar 25, 2010)

Nightingales are just about singing still. They sound rather like a cross between a song thrush and a blackbird. Robins will sing if there is bright lights like a street light, although that is normally during early spring. Can you give some sort of description as to the sound it was making?


----------



## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

BwB said:


> Nightingale ?


No not a nightingale which I've just listened to on the RSPB site. Nor was it a Starling.

It wasn't a song as such - just a single, almost monotonous note lasting about 2-3 seconds which was repeated on the longest occasion about 14 times.


----------



## rayrecrok (Nov 21, 2008)

Hi.
Usually blackbirds?.


----------



## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

rayrecrok said:


> Hi.
> Usually blackbirds?.


The thing is .....we know our birdsong quite well and know that the blackbird (of which we have many here) has quite a repetoire. We just think that we would have heard this in the past. It is an entirely new sound. I first thought it was a creature of some kind but whatever it was was in the ash tree opposite our bedroom window so hence the thought it was some sort of bird. Spooky. Perhaps I'll have to spend lots of time on the RSPB website listening to ALL the birdsong until I get it.


----------



## Jodi1 (Mar 25, 2010)

I wonder if it was a Little Owl. They have quite a number of different sounds. Perhaps it was a youngster waiting for mum and dad to bring in breakfast.


----------



## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

Jodi1 said:


> I wonder if it was a Little Owl. They have quite a number of different sounds. Perhaps it was a youngster waiting for mum and dad to bring in breakfast.


That was our very first thought but I could not identify the sound from the RSPB site. Perhaps it was an owl after all. That does sound like the most probable answer.


----------



## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

You will have to sit up tonight and bird watch :wink: 
Record it if you can.


----------



## mandyandandy (Oct 1, 2006)

Just remember when the weather is hot alot of people have windows and doors open, an easy way for a tame bird to escape in to big outside world and wonder what on earth was going on.   

My sister and my friend both lot birds this way one came home the other never seen again. 

Mandy


----------



## Jodi1 (Mar 25, 2010)

mandyandandy said:


> Just remember when the weather is hot alot of people have windows and doors open, an easy way for a tame bird to escape in to big outside world and wonder what on earth was going on.
> 
> My sister and my friend both lot birds this way one came home the other never seen again.
> 
> Mandy


On Springwatch they had a photo of a bird that someone had sent in which looked like a humming bird going round the flowers. It was definitely not the humming bird hawk moth which are the usual "Humming bird" sightings. The Springwatch team agreed that it did indeed look like a real humming bird and must have escaped. What a marvellous thing to have seen in your garden, though


----------



## BlakeneyPlayer (Feb 22, 2009)

It could be a grey squirrel which have a warning cry not unlike a jay and will make the noise if the dray is being threatened by anything they perceive as a predator


----------



## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

BlakeneyPlayer said:


> It could be a grey squirrel which have a warning cry not unlike a jay and will make the noise if the dray is being threatened by anything they perceive as a predator


Now that is interesting because I had thought it was a creature at first but my husband said bird. Grey squirrels are something we have zillions of (unfortunately.) Thanks


----------

