Clear skies with chilly temperatures made for a nice quiet night, weather-wise. Except for a distant eagle calling at 2:30, the only thing I heard until nearly daylight was River Otters chirping. The started about 2:35 and continued through almost 4. They were so faint for much of that time, I suspect in other weather conditions, I would not have caught them. Once it started getting light, I did pick up more calls, as expected. Ravens led off the morning dialog with the first calls at 6:35. About 10 minutes later, the first Bald Eagle added its voice. I was treated to a Trumpeter Swan flyby a few minutes before 7. It must not have been too close, as I couldn’t hear the feather whistling, but the calls were fairly distinctive. I also picked up a couple of other new species for these recordings, a Hairy Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Juncos.
Trumpeter Swan: At first I was not even sure this was an animal call. After a couple of listens I realized it sounded like a swan, and a quick check of the Birds of Alaska CD confirmed it. Download Trumpeter Swan
Hairy Woodpecker: I am not absolutely sure about this call, but I’m confident that it’s a woodpecker. Although it seems clear the woodpecker must be flying from left to right, the wingbeats that are heard in this clip are probably from a Raven, not the woodpecker.
Download Hairy Woodpecker
Dark-eyed Juncos: These juncos were getting after each other a bit. In recent days I have been realizing that I have not seen many Dark-eyed Juncos around lately. I’m not sure why that is, but apparently they’ve returned to the neighborhood for at least one morning.
Download Dark-eyed Juncos