My grandfather was a small, musical man, his stand-up bass looming over him, or so it looked from the perspective of a small child. We rarely visited, but the visits were full of wonder and never more so than when he took us out on walks through the heather, forest and flats of Lower-Saxony. He knew all the bird sounds and was able to imitate them with his precise whistling, making music as we walked. He taught me about thrushes, robins and black birds, chickadees and woodpeckers, wrens, cuckoos and nightingales. I learned that there was a repertoire of communication among birds, from mating to warning to war fare, not unlike our own.

Listening to bird sounds, then, is a big source of joy for me; the first melodic ones in spring in the garden, or the rare, high pitched ones that hint at the presence of raptors when I am out on my jaunts, and now, in fall, the choruses of migrating flocks.

The migration of birds is in full swing – I thought it would be fun to share some of what I saw last week, and provide some recordings of what I heard. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a wonderful source – most of what is below I found there.

Here are the Canada geese which really are around all year, but seem to flock in masses during fall.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/sounds

“Various loud honks, barks, and cackles. Also some hisses.”

Then there are their cousins, the snow geese. This goose breeds north of the timberline in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the northeastern tip of Siberia, and spends winters in warm parts of North America from southwestern British Columbia through parts of the United States to Mexico. They fly as far south as Texas and Mexico during winter, and return to nest on the Arctic tundra each spring – says Wikipedia. I always feel particularly happy when I encounter them, since they remind me of one of my favorite children’s book: The wonderful adventures of Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerlöf. A little misbehaving boy is shrunk and travels across Sweden on the back of a snow goose, having all sorts of adventures and providing the young readers, unawares, with a geography and biology lesson.

 

 

Then there were these huge flocks of ducks. I believe they were pintails, but am not sure, was too far away. They are shy creatures.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pintail/sounds

Throughout the year, male Northern Pintails give a short burst that sounds similar to a wheezy trainlike whistle. Females often make a rough stuttering quack similar to a Mallard.

And finally, my favorite of them all, the cranes. Not only are they beautiful, almost regal in their steady flight, but they have these amazing dances, of courtship or in territorial defense, where they seem to defy gravity, jumping high in the air with barely a lift of the wings, signaling muscle power that my limp, aging body can only dream of.

The link below gives you a glimpse of their toughness, engaging with black bears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-NQgobvz40

 

 

 

 

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/sounds

Sandhill Cranes give loud, rattling bugle calls, each lasting a couple of seconds and often strung together. They can be heard up to 2.5 miles away and are given on the ground as well as in flight, when the flock may be very high and hard to see. They also give moans, hisses, gooselike honks, and snoring sounds. Chicks give trills and purrs.

Here they are in flight:

 

 

 

Don’t you wish you could just travel with them? They are calling…..