ML130067781
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Sounds
- Call
- Playback
- Playback not used
Media notes
Just to give you a sense of the sounds a flock this big makes. That's not wind noise. That's all Dunlin. The little "pip" calls closer are Sanderlings. The Dunlin fly briefly (when the roar gets louder) and land again a few seconds in.
Observation details
I can scarcely believe it, myself... I have never seen or heard that many shorebirds in one place before. I counted the flock as they roosted in place 3 or 4 times to be sure. I divvied up the flock and counted by 10's up to 100, then counted by 100's up to 1,000, then by thousands on my first count. Not believing the total, I narrowed my count to just 100's, and came up with the same number. I walked farther along the beach, made sure I had a good angle, and counted again... same. They were packed in like sardines almost from horizon to horizon at Bottle Beach on the wet sand just as the tide was going out. It was very, very dark (overcast, sunset) by that time, so I searched the flock as best as I could for anything different, but found mostly only Dunlin... The picture below, unedited to show how dark it was out there, is a teensy tiny fraction of the birds present. Now just imagine that same density for almost as far as you can see left and right on the beach. (Also, there's one Sanderling hiding in that picture. Virtual high-fives to those who spot it.)
Technical information
- Recorder
- Olympus LS-10
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 388.19 KB