This Glaucous-winged Gull may have been stashed under the bank by a Mink, or possibly River Otter.

While walking near the flume a couple of days ago, I noticed something white along the bank. From a distance I couldn’t tell what it was, the only thing that crossed my mind was some sort of plastic packing material, but I decided to take a closer look.

This Glaucous-winged Gull may have been stashed under the bank by a Mink, or possibly River Otter.

As I approached my eyes and brain tried to make sense of what I was seeing before it finally clicked; it was the wing and body of a Glaucous-winged Gull that had been partially pulled up under the bank. Given the size of the bank opening, my best guess is that a mink got a hold of the bird and pulled it up in there, but there is also a chance that an otter could have done it. I didn’t pull the bird out to take a look at it, but will probably go check on it over the next few days.

Marbled Murrelets: I suspect all of these are Marbled Murrelets. I’m confident in the first one, and the last part of the second, but less so about the others, as the calls are more like chirps than the ‘keer’ calls of Marbled Murrelets. However, I would not be surprised if Marbled Murrelets chirp also. The initial chirps in the second clip have a very similar sound quality to the following ‘keer’ calls, so it seems likely to be a Marbled Murrelet throughout. Trying to puzzle these chirps out has made me curious if Marbled Murrelets might respond to River Otters chirping.

River Otter Mystery Calls: I’m still puzzled by these River Otter/Mystery Calls. In this clip, it seems as though there’s an echo effect smearing the call somewhat, though in the very last call, there is not really any echo. It’s hard for me tell for sure if the final call is the same as the earlier ones, though it seems like maybe it is.
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River Otter and Mystery Calls: Recorded only 5 minutes or so after the previous clip, this starts out with what I’m pretty confident is a River Otter. About halfway through, the calls change to the mystery calls that sound kind of like gulls to me.
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Early Rising Bald Eagle: This Bald Eagle probably spent the night in a tree behind the house. It was up early on a rainy Sunday, though given the time change last night, it was not as early as it might have otherwise seemed. Recorded at 06:37.
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River Otter and Mystery Calls: More of the River Otter and Mystery Calls. In this clip, there is an otter chirping, then the mystery (possibly gull?) call comes in with the otter. It sounds to me like the second type of call is from an animal that’s moving around faster than I would expect an otter to (which would incline me to think it’s a bird), but I am uncertain how well I can actually interpret the spatial cues in these recordings.
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Red Squirrel: The rapid call at the beginning of this clip was something I don’t remember hearing before.
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Otter/Mystery Calls: I think the calls at the start of clip are from a River Otter, but I’m not sure. They sound somewhat like the mystery calls that I was thinking might be gulls from the night before. The last couple of calls near the end (after a couple of seconds without any) sound (and look on the spectrogram) qualitatively different, but that could be due to proximity and/or echo effects, I suppose.
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Otter/Mystery Calls: In this clip I’m pretty confident there are otter chirps, I do not know why a Gull would be calling along with an otter, so this clip makes me suspect that the calls I was thinking were gulls may actually be otter vocalizations.
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Duck Flight: I am pretty sure the whistling noises in this clip are from the wing feathers of flying ducks. I’m not sure what species (nor whether it is possible to tell the species by this sound). I think they may have flown a circle around the neighborhood, as the sound lasted for longer than I would expect on a direct fly-over (though I didn’t include everything in this clip).
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Mystery Call: A single call that I believe I’ve heard before (and included a clip of). It sounds rather shorebird-like, and it occured to me that it may be a Wilson’s Snipe. However, none of the recordings I have found so far of Wilson’s Snipe include a call like this.
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Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Wind: Chestnut-backed Chickadees calling while the wind blows through the trees.
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Raven Calls and Wind: I think this fast calling Raven was flying, but I’m not sure.
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Mystery Call: I suspect this is a River Otter. It’s in the same frequency and has a similar tone quaity to the chirps, but it’s more drawn out. There are two vocalizations with a car driving pulling away in a nearby gravel parking lot between. Recorded at 22:33. Download Mystery Call

Mystery Call: I have no idea what this call is from. It was quite faint, and may be difficult to make out above the noise. I have included an additional clip which has had a noise-removal filter applied. I think the call is more or less intact, but there are definite artifacts in the background. Recorded at 23:16.Download Mystery Call

De-noised Version:

Download de-noised version

Mystery Call: This is a very short clip of a single call. It sounds most like a peep (the collective term for several species of small shorebirds), though I do not know why one of those would be flying around here now. Recorded at 00:58. Download Mystery Call

Wind Gust: The wind was really blowing through the trees at various times last night. Recorded at 00:57. Download Wind Gust

River Otter and Mystery Sound: Another clip of river otter chirping in the distance on a windy evening made more interesting by some strange high frequency sounds. I do not remember noticing them when I first went through the recording, but I cannot figure out how they would have been introduced during a simple copy/paste operation. I have included a Spectrogram of the clip to show how the mystery sounds extend out of the frequency range I can easily hear. It seems odd that they go through each channel sequentially, but I am at a loss to explain why that might happen. At this point I am thinking it’s most likely some type of interference, though perhaps it is biological in origin. Download River Otter and Mystery Sound

Varied Thrush: Another type of call from Varied Thrush. Recorded at 08:25. Download Varied Thrush

Chirps: I believe these are from a River Otter, but I can’t quite decide whether there’s an echo going on, multiple individuals, or perhaps both.
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Mystery Call: At first I thought this might be a variant of the otter chirps, but upon repeated listenings, it also sounds something like a Shorebird. Download Mystery Call

Chirps: The more I hear these chirps, the more convinced I am that they are from a River Otter (Lontra canadensis). Download Chirps