Noises

**veekay** · 04-May-11, 10:42

I wonder if anyone can help. Over the past week or two there has been a strange 'trilling' noise on the moor near me. It sounds a little bit like crickets but is not crickets. I have checked out the mating sounds of frogs and toads and it isn't that either. Any ideas

**NickInTheNorth** · 04-May-11, 10:52

Sounds like quite a fair description of a corncrake:

go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/bird...ake/index.aspx take a listen, I've not hreard of them here in Caithness, but it would be very good news if it was.

**veekay** · 04-May-11, 11:25

Nick I have had a listen and it does sound similar. I will have to wait until later today and listen again to my noises just to make sure it isn't wishful thinking

**nirofo** · 04-May-11, 17:32

Originally Posted by veekay

I wonder if anyone can help. Over the past week or two there has been a strange 'trilling' noise on the moor near me. It sounds a little bit like crickets but is not crickets. I have checked out the mating sounds of frogs and toads and it isn't that either. Any ideas

It sounds like it could be Snipe displaying, their wing feathers make a rapid drumming sound as they do their display dives over their nesting territory, they will be at their most active just now with the breeding season just started.

nirofo.

**Duncansby** · 04-May-11, 19:07

I grew up in JOG and the corncrake call was a familiar sound in the summer...unfortunately it's been a very long time since I've heard one though

**veekay** · 05-May-11, 12:54

Have had another listen and still can't make my mind up as to whether it is the sound of corncrakes or not, but I don't think so there seems to be several of them whatever them are, making the noise. Nirofo the sound is definitely Snipe a very different sound.

**kas** · 05-May-11, 18:08

Could it possibly be a grasshopper warbler. There seems to be loads around this year??

They are very distinctive.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/bird...ler/index.aspx

**veekay** · 06-May-11, 10:13

Grasshopper warbler it is. How lovely

**Backlass** · 07-May-11, 21:55

I think there is a fair chance it could be a grasshopper warbler. Sounds like a finsih line reeling out! There have been an unusually large number of them in the county this spring

**Liz** · 09-May-11, 13:44

Oh Kas you have solved a mystery for me!!!

I heard a noise last year which sounded like it was coming from a ditch and thought it was a frog or an insect. On listening to the link you gave I now realise it was a Grasshopper Warbler!

**pat** · 09-May-11, 17:09

If it was a corncrake it goes all night too - lovely to hear them but if one is nesting nearby you will not get much sleep, so thankfully for you it is the Grasshopper Warbler.

**kas** · 09-May-11, 18:16

Veekay I am glad you got an ID to the noise, you too Liz. They seem to have become more common up here over the last few years, I only saw my first one four years back, learning my warblers is an ongoing process as they tend to hide most of the time. Its a cracking noise though.

**pat** · 09-May-11, 23:10

Just back from a walk with the dogs - heard the corncrake in the field around the house, guess who is now in for a few sleepless nights?
It did not come here last year, or maybe I was away when it was calling all night so thought it had moved its nesting spot, it has been here every year since I moved here.
Should not have posted and maybe it would not be nesting so close to the house.