bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

not seen; singing from a burn area with regenerating young oaks and dead pine trunks; others audible nearby; interval shortened at 1:37 for two songs from an immediate neighbor of this bird, the neighbor flying down after these songs so I haven't made it a separate recording;

Bird singing from top of blackberry thicket, about 10 feet off the ground. Recorded with Voice Record Pro on iPhone7, normalized to -3dB and converted to mp3. Beginning and end trimmed to remove noises by the recordist but otherwise no modifications.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

wildtronics mono amplified Tascam Dr05 Audacity normalized -10db aufilter for low noise remotion

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:yes

3 natural calls from single individual in dense bushes, with faint recording of second individual calling from much further away.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

Recorded with Voice Record Pro on iPhone7, normalized to -3dB and converted to mp3. Beginning and end trimmed to remove noises by the recordist but otherwise no modifications. The male (black hood) SPTO was singing from the power line along the side of the street, a very quiet dead-end street with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees along the shores of Puget Sound.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

Okay, so this is an amazing recording. There's a bit of a story here. I was quite close to the bird, an adult male, thinking that its call, although perfectly typically, was a bit quiet. (Compare to the audio of the Spotted Towhee I recorded a week earlier, a bird no closer than today's bird.)

So, I'm standing there, recording the bird, struck by the monotony of the call notes. Again, the only remotely notable thing was that the call didn't seem terribly loud for a bird so close. I'm thinking to myself, 'Gee, this is a sorta pointless exercise, but, then again, Ed Pandolfino and Don Kroodsma and Nathan Pieplow are always saying that it's worthwhile to get long recordings...and I have absolutely nothing better to do out here in the middle of nowhere...so, what the heck...why not?'

And then something marvelous happened. It starts at the 34.5-second mark, with that barely audible, Bushtit-like trill. But it's not a Bushtit. Then that whistled note at 37.3. Then the Bushtit-like element again at 38.0. Then tiny little song-like sequences. But also strange elements like the one at 58.5 and again at 1:00.2 and 1:01.6. And it just kept going and going, getting more and more complex. And then, at 2:33.3, the towhee gives its last weird element, a Red-winged Blackbird-like down-slur, and then the towhee fell silent in the bush.

So, yeah, sometimes it's a good idea to keep the recorder running! The song was incredibly soft, and if I hadn't been standing right there, already listening to the calling bird, I'm sure I would have walked right past it.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

Bird singing from large gambel oak thicket just off main gravel road up to relay station.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

wiltronics mono amplified DR05

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:yes

wildtronics mono amplified Tascam Dr05 Audacity normalized - 10db aufilter for noise in low frecuency Open oak forest,

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

Bird was moving through regrowth young douglas-fir (5cm diameter)