Bird call

[madhatter]

Two weeks ago, I was walking through the valley of the river Darent between Eynsford and Shoreham in NE Kent. I passed through lavender fields and was proceedin' in a southerly direction through what I fancy was a field of barley. Suddenly I heard a "scrape scrape" sound nearby and looked round but could see nothing that might account for it. I waited a while before moving on but it was not repeated so I resumed my walk. Then I heard it again: "scrape scrape" just like before so I waited, this time counting seconds and after about 4 minutes it was repeated but fainter. It happened just once more after about 5 minutes.

It did seem sufficiently unmusical to be a defective bird scarer, saying "scrape scrape" instead of "bang" but that seems unlikely. I looked up corncrake at the time but the sound and distribution was wrong. A suggestion was Dartford warbler but that has at least some clear notes and my sound didn't, just the oddly mechanical sound hard to describe and too brief to try recording, analogous perhaps to scraping a brick on a concrete pavement, twice with a short gap, each "scrape scrape" being less than a second. Another suggestion was a partridge, which my Observers Book of Birds has "cheevik" for the common partridge and "chucker chucker" 'and knife-grinding sounds' for the red legged partridge.

However, the RSPB site didn't sound right and another YouTube video sounded closer but still too 'busy'. If partridge it was, then it will be the only one I have encountered so I don't know how much variation to expect in the calls. Does this seem a likely candidate or are there others I have overlooked?

Even if I had a bird call identifying app (which I am tempted to actually buy for the iPhone), I doubt it would have helped as only the first call was loud and it would have had to 'listen' too long for the next.

[Breelander]

The Common Pheasant?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MhZFOKiGgw

[madhatter]

The Common Pheasant?

Quite possibly. I have seen plenty of pheasants in Kent, though normally while wearing a crash helmet ant trying to avoid running over the bleeders. I doubt I will have knowingly heard one, but the cadence of the double "chirk" type sound is right, though with much longer gaps.

Harder to recall the actual sound now than the verbal description I formulated at the time.

[Clitheroekid]

Might it have been a corncrake? Their Latin name is Crex Crex, which sounds rather like their call.

They're pretty rare nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks2taH61mn8

[madhatter]

I did wonder about the corncrake at the time I heard it. I'd never heard one, but did recall that they made unbirdlike noises. While I was still walking, I called up the sound on the phone from the RSPB site. The cadence was right, but the sound was more like "buzz buzz" than "scrape scrape" and the distribution map made it look like they shouldn't be anywhere near where I was.

[Slarti]

I did wonder about the corncrake at the time I heard it. I'd never heard one, but did recall that they made unbirdlike noises. While I was still walking, I called up the sound on the phone from the RSPB site. The cadence was right, but the sound was more like "buzz buzz" than "scrape scrape" and the distribution map made it look like they shouldn't be anywhere near where I was.

A big cricket, or lost cicada?


Just to be different.

Slarti

[madhatter]

A big cricket, or lost cicada?

That also crossed my mind at the time, but I have heard crickets and grasshoppers though not necessarily cicadas, and although discordant, still had a sort of buzz. As if you could examine the waveform, you would expect to see a row evenly spaced bursts at maybe 30 or 40 per second.

Perhaps I will make another visit to the area, but it was a long walk, between 10 and 11 miles, and I still only heard the call a handful of times, so it would not be surprising to miss it altogether. Very nice place though, even if it remains a mystery.