Recently, while enjoying a stroll along the boreens near Midleton, Co Cork, I heard what sounded like a mobile phone ringing from inside the hedgerow. Then the trilling sound stopped and a flock of starlings shot out I remember hearing farmhands claim that some birds were know to mimic common sounds such as telephones, but I had always tended to dismiss the idea as an urban myth -
Darius Bartlett, Department of Geography, UCC
It is not at all an urban myth. Starlings are famous for their mimicry, not alone of other birds, but also of mammal sounds and the odd noises produced by machines which they hear around them.
Some time ago, I was talking to a colleague from a heathland area near Woodford in Co Galway. He referred several times to hearing what locals called a "mini-goat" in the evenings. Was this a nightjar? -
Paddy O'Reilly. Balbriggan, Co Dublin
It was the drumming of a snipe in the breeding season. This a non-vocal sound made by the male as part of territorial and mating display. He stakes out his territory by rising about 100 metres into the air and diving at an angle of 45 degrees with his tail feathers spread out. The sound is caused by the wind vibrating through these feathers. The "mini" is a corruption of the Irish name mionnan gabhar, literally a "goat kid" because that is what the sound resembles.
WE were walking in the Co Antrim Hills close to Garron Point on May 7th when we came across four unusual birds. Distinctive features were their black caps, with white stripe above the eye and neck, rusty-coloured breast again with a white stripe, and mottled brown back. Could these have been dotterels on migration?
- Eilis and Hugh Barry, Carnlough, Co Antrim
Yes, indeed. A dotterel was seen also at the Saltee islands in the first week of May. These waders are rare but regular visitors on migration from Europe.