Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 32
Greater Yellowlegs
John James Audubon, betw
Bird

Greater Yellowlegs

Tringa melanoleuca
Sandpipers and Allies (Scolopacidae)
Year-round resident. Expected at the creek in every month.
Field marks
A tall, elegant shorebird with long bright-yellow legs, a slightly upturned bill longer than its head, and grey-brown mottling.
Male & female
Alike.
Voice
A loud, ringing 'tew-tew-tew', three or four notes, given the instant anything approaches, which is why the old name was 'tattler'.
Diet
Small fish, insects and crustaceans, chased through shallow water with the bill sweeping side to side.
Habitat
Mudflats, marsh pools, flooded fields; in Washington a migrant and winter visitor to the lowlands.
Nesting
In muskeg and boreal bogs across Canada and Alaska.
Size
12–14 in long, 4½–7 oz: a baseball on stilts.

The first bird on a mudflat to raise the alarm, and therefore not popular with hunters, which may be why it is still so common.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 2 calls on 1 day, first Oct 29, last Oct 29

0100:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 0 calls09:00 — 0 calls910:00 — 1 calls11:00 — 0 calls12:00 — 0 calls1213:00 — 0 calls14:00 — 0 calls15:00 — 1 calls1516:00 — 0 calls17:00 — 0 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
12Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 2 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 0 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 29 10:36 am · 95% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 3:45 pm · 88% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The greater yellowlegs is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It breeds in central Canada and southern Alaska and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.
From Wikipedia, "Greater yellowlegs", CC BY-SA 4.0.