Thanks to some helpful folks for responding to a help request, I now realize that the otter/mystery calls are Marbled Murrelets. I’m pretty sure that the straight chirping calls are otters, but the other more gull-like calls are murrelets. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before, I guess I did not expect to have them flying over the house.
Marbled Murrelets: The first Marbled Murrelet calls I noticed were just before 3am. They continued on sporadically through at last 5am. It’s not really known why Marbled Murrelets fly inland during the night throughout the year, though in the summer they do so to visit their nests.
Download Marbled Murrelet 1
Download Marbled Murrelet 2
Download Marbled Murrelet 3
Mystery Call: There’s probably not much hope for figuring out this call. The first call is obscured somewhat by a Marbled Murrelet call, and a second call is much fainter.
Mystery Call
Duck Flyover: I think I’ll try to start paying more attention to the sound of ducks flying in order to see if I can figure out species by the sound of their flight.
Duck Flyover
Raven Calls: Another Raven vocalization that I’ve not caught on recording previously.
Download Raven Calls
Hi Matt
I loved finding these recordings. It’s a fresh angle on observation, and something that us vicarious observers are lucky to have access to. A few hours after I checked your site, I read this article in the latest Orion magazine issue: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/3627/
Thought you might appreciate it.
Thanks, Megan
Megan,
Thanks for the comment, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the recordings.
Thanks for the link. I did enjoy the article. I remember reading something about the square inch of silence before, but it’s been quite a while.