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Macaroni Penguin
Eudyptes chrysolophus
Hannah Point, Livingston Island, Antarctica
This pair of Macaroni Penguins is nesting in a colony of Chinstrap Penguins.
The Macaronis have one small chick
27 December 2003

Took time out to do a little chugging in the last frame.
Nice to see him hammering away on a dead tree, instead of my cedars!! Must've been some really yummy critters in there...he totally ignored the dog that was right under the tree.

I think I witnessed the send-off of these two young Grackles but I'm not sure. There was quite a fuss in the trees, the adult vocalizing a great deal, and the young ones chuh-chuhing back. It was difficult to know for sure who was saying what because most of the time the birds were hidden.

But occasionally they came out and perched on a post in plain sight. A young one came out repeatedly. All I ever saw it say was a soft "Chuh, Chuh."

Then when the two young ones had flown across the block to the Silver Maple, the adult perched on the post or or chimney and continued with this scolding kind of vocalization. Also a very harsh "Chuh! Chuh!"

It reminded me of those human mothers whom the kids can never please. I am very curious exactly what was going on, what this adult was telling the juvies, if anyone knows.

The adult is posted at https://inaturalist.ca/observations/225435448.

While I have heard Peepers, Chorus frogs and Wood frogs at this location over the last 14 years. I have never heard green Frogs here. I would think it would be too shallow (less than 45cm) for a two year tadpole to survive the winter.

2024/03/15

This is the sound of a captured and terrified starling. It is sound one would make if being carried off by a predator. When other forms of spooking fail, playing this usually works very well, but not always and overuse can lead to it being useless. Starling's perception of sound is very frequency-specific and their mimicry can be very precise, if scratchy. They don't seem to take long to catch on that it's the same sound each time and can't be the same starling in the grasp of a predator repeatedly. I like to keep it short, so they hear less. They usually fly over to inspect, which is an opportunity to be scary again. Grackles and other birds usually around do not have much of any reaction to it, but I try not to use it when crows are near. They probably know it and are weary of me enough as is it is.

This starling had gotten food enough to become hard to spook and therefore making it very difficult to feed natives without risking inviting many more starlings to crash the party, disaster. This was recorded about 15 seconds into the alarm. The starling had flight feathers clipped, was set free and seen several times nearby for the weeks until near autumn molt.

Continuing- this is the same owl, she was just so beautiful I just wanted to show case the close ups separately. She let me walk right up to almost touching her, before silently winging across the yard over to the pine trees, closely followed by the 'Blue Brigade' who perched in another pine & shouted their disapproval.for the next 1/2 hour,until she obviously decided to move back further into the woods,
These Owls have the most beautiful soft looking eyes...sooo unpredator looking!

Likely somebody's pet...eating somebody else's pet (this is "horse country" and a lot of people have chickens, goats, horses and little farms). Another chicken victim nearby https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9556838