It was late in the evening and the light was slowly fading from the croft. We were packing up a few things by the house site and were on our way back to the caravan when suddenly an eerie, reverberating noise split the peace of the night.
We couldn’t see what had made the sound, nor could we identify it. It came again. We could still see nothing.
Did we have aliens on the hillside in the grass?
The sound reminded me of the noise made by one of those long, plastic tubes that we whirled around our heads for fun as children in the Seventies. A high pitched, reverberating, whining rattle. Quite bizarre.
An Internet search soon found the noise. It was the sound of a Snipe. The male of the species apparently reverberates its tail feathers as it performs its courtship ritual in the spring, making this incredible noise.
https://www.xeno-canto.org/595646
We have Snipe! I’m ridiculously excited by the discovery for me of a new bird on the croft. How wonderful.
Ravencroft Skye 
Oh wow! That’s insane. I’ll definitely be using the site for other bird sounds. Thank you. x
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You’re welcome. There are some great identification sites out there. I love that you can ID a bird online by its call these days 😍
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Amazing!! Have you started a bird register yet? Just keep a journal with sightings and … hearings? that includes date, time and position. It is amazing how the bird life changes over the years as the land becomes more hospitable.
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That’s a great idea. I haven’t, but I shall. Once we have the trees planted and maturing I’m hoping that bird life wl be even more varied.
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Oh it will. Having a friendly place to live is very encouraging to birds.
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Snipe make such an amazing sound, it really is quite other worldly. Magical that you have them on the croft!
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We’re loving the birdlife on the croft. Even though snipe are apparently very common on the island, it was a first for us and very special 👍
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Sorry, I haven’t been getting notifications of comments…only saw your reply today!
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