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Transcript:

This is BirdNote!

In early June, millions of birds arrive on the Arctic Coastal Plain in Alaska, from all over the world. They鈥檙e there to attract a mate and raise their young. They鈥檒l feed on the explosion of insect life that happens in the brief spring. Nature photographer [and bird sound recordist], Gerrit Vyn, takes us there:

"So, when the shorebirds arrive, it鈥檚 an absolutely spectacular event! 鈥s soon as they get up there, these male shorebirds of all different types begin all of these unique displays 鈥撯€� If you go up there on a calm, still, spring evening when the winds subside, all of these birds just lift off the ground. And the tundra can appear barren and within a few hours鈥� you just hear thousands of birds in every direction calling and singing"

"There鈥檚 one shorebird species, the Pectoral Sandpiper, where the male has this pectoral sac at its chest that... it鈥檒l stand on the ground for awhile and inflate this sac and then take off on these sort of moth-like, buoyant flights, low over the tundra, emitting this incredibly resonant hooting song as it鈥檚 circling its territory, trying to chase off other males and attract a female鈥�  It鈥檚 an incredible thing to see this bird floating toward you uttering this loud resonant hooting sound"

Learn more about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at  and 探花精选.org. 

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Credits:

鈥婭nterview of Gerrit Vyn by Chris Peterson

Narrator: Mary McCann

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

Songs and calls of the birds at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, recorded by M.J. Anderson and Gerrit Vyn.   Feature of Pectoral Sandpiper by Gerrit Vyn LMS 130964.

漏 2015 Tune In to Nature.org          June 2017