“Conference Call vs. Alarm Call”

By Dan Gardoqui

 

During an early May morning in Maine, I was on a monthly conference call with some colleagues, occasionally multi-tasking on a few other projects, when I noticed that two robins outside my window (which was closed at the time) stopped moving.

I’m not talking a brief pause- instead, they were frozen in place. Not a muscle was moving. 

Just a few minutes ago, they were hunting worms on the edge of the lawn. Now, two of them – one on the ground and one 5 feet up a witch hazel appeared immobilized. This caught my undivided attention.

Without thinking, I uttered something into the phone that made it sound like I was paying attention, then hit the mute button.  At that moment, I observed a second feature of the frozen robins.

Both  birds were intermittently opening  their beaks – only about 1/3 of the way open – then closing them.  It’s a “SEEEEEEET” alarm I said to the office manager. I put the handset on the desk and snuck out of the room quietly.

A thin, high-pitched “SEEEEEET” alarm from two frozen robins-who were both facing in the same direction – likely meant one thing: A dangerous raptor snuck in on them and was too close for comfort.

Using my mind’s eye to visualize the branches of the only large tree near the robins, a mid-sized American Beech, I realized going upstairs would give me a better view (and would likely not disturb the whole scene). 

Sure enough, as I quietly and slowly walked toward the window (bird, especially raptors, can see into houses), I could see the robins, still frozen and still emitting their ventriloqual alarm.

I could also see the searching head and piercing eyes of a broad-winged hawk (a smaller buteo that can, and does, dispatch robins regularly in my neck of the woods), who was intently scanning the ground below for the robins that drew it in just a minute ago.

Without thinking, I decided to tap on the glass and see what happened.  In a flash, the hawk left it’s perch, going away from the robins, who, within 20 seconds (I counted) began vocalizing their discontent for the hawk with harsh “TUT!” calls.  It took those robins nearly two minutes to resume feeding nearby.  

I was so excited about the whole story I just witnessed and took part in that I forgot my conference call. Upon my return, I saw that my colleagues were still all chatting away – apparently not even noticing my absence as I witnessed the near-death experience of a few of my neighbors.

Editor’s Note: Dan served as the science editor for the new book, What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World. He also worked with Lang Elliot of NatureSound Studio to produce an audio companion to the book (go there to hear the “Seeee” alarm call of the robin!). The BirdLanguage.com team welcomes Dan as a contributor – keep a look out for more stories from him!

The BirdLanguage.com staff welcomes our newest story contributor, Rick Bedsworth. Rick has many years of experience with wildlife tracking and bird language, and has many great stories to share. You can also hear his voice on the Village Talk Essentials of Nature Connection series at 4PM PST each week.

 

Trailing Whitetail Deer and Secondary Alarms

by Rick Bedsworth

 I’d been tracking for several years, developing my ability to see different types of sign across the forested landscape.  In my neck of the woods, Missouri, there is very little sand, and when it snows, it doesn’t seem to last long on the ground. 

To track, I needed to develop both the visual and mental recognition of the “sign indicators” which told me of the presence or passage of whatever it was I was determined to follow.  To put it simply, I had to train my mind to understand what it was my eyes were already seeing. 

By early 2005, I had developed my tracking ability to a level of proficiency and was competent enough to follow deer wherever they moved about. 

 As I moved toward a deer bedding area, I approached cautiously as I cut an old logging road for sign that showed the deer were definitely using this particular area.  I followed three different lines of sign, all heading to bed which was in a portion of the forest where the trees were much younger and had good cover areas. 

The canopy wasn’t as thick, due to the smaller trees, and so a decent amount of sunlight gets through to warm the ground in this spot.  This area has a berm which allows the deer to face toward the sun, and offers some extra cover they can use as an escape route.

I followed the deer sign to the berm, where I located three fresh deer beds.  In the beds were fresh hoof digs where the deer had exploded out of their beds from my presence.  I could tell this was extremely fresh sign from the color tones and texture of the hoof marks and the turned-over leaves. 

It was during this time, while I was examining the freshness of the sign, that I noticed the incessant chipping of a male cardinal to my southeast.  I followed, with my eyes, the line of sign which led to the same thicket the cardinal was chipping from.  The cardinal was chipping from a branch about seven feet off the ground and was looking down.  I fixed my eyes on the position the cardinal was looking at, and staring back at me from the thicket was one of the deer that had jumped out of the bed.

When I recognized what was going on, it occurred to me I had also been hearing an alarm call from a Grey Squirrel to the northeast of me.  I turned toward the squirrel and looked in the direction it was facing.  I couldn’t see any deer but I followed the sign from the other two beds heading in the direction of the squirrel. 

As the sign began to head east and down the hill towards a dried creek bed, I heard the song of a Carolina Wren.  By this time I was pretty certain the two deer had caused the wren to sing and was growing confident that I would follow their sign to the wren.  When I reached the wren, I could see where the sign had stopped and then faced back toward my direction where I had stood by the squirrel.  From here, there were more explosion marks from the hoofs where the deer took off heading away from me and toward some private property. 

I continued on the sign following it across the creek bed and up the other slope.  The sign showed a greater depth and stride of the hoof marks.  The distance between each track set also began to increase, and I was amazed at the number of obstacles these deer were able to move through with such grace and speed. 

Before I even got to the top of the hill, I heard a dog start barking and I knew the deer had ran by it.  I continued on the sign until the trail reached private property.  I stopped there and followed the sign with my eyes as far as I could see it.  As my ears continued listening, I heard some stationary cardinal chips and Grey Squirrel squeals. I knew the deer had stopped and were looking back toward my direction….