Hello Chatters,

I've been exchanging emails with Lang Elliott and
he asked me to forward his thoughts to BIRDCHAT.
Since it is a shorebird issue, I am posting to
SHOREBIRDS as well. I hope, as I'm sure does Lang,
that some of you will find this information useful.
=====================================
1st email: ++++++++++++++++++
Jack:

Donald and Lillian Stokes just alerted me to the
BirdChat discussion surrounding the yellowlegs
recordings on the Stokes Guide. I believe the
recording is question is that of the courtship
song of the Greater Yellowlegs, recorded by Bill
Evans in Florida. I believe that bird was singing
in flight.

I would like to analyze this myself and would love
  to hear your recordings, which I believe were
posted somewhere, at least that's the impression
that Donald and Lillian had. Or perhaps there are
no recordings?

I personally am not very familiar with the
courtship songs of these species, so I cannot say
for sure if Bill's ID is correct. He's a crack
birder, so my hunch is that it is correct. I do
know that the courtship songs of both species are
quite similar. I will check the Birds of NA
monographs to see if anyone has defined their
differences.

Lang Elliott
NatureSound Studio
=====================================
I replied that the recordings I posted weren't
mine, but were actually extracted from the Stokes
collection.
=====================================
2nd email: ++++++++++++++++++++++
Jack:

Re: BirdChat posts concerning yellowlegs courtship
songs

It occurs to me that most of the confusion results
from the fact that I was unable to find an example
of the courtship song of the Lesser, so it was not
included in the Stokes Guide. So, when you checked
the Stokes CD, the only song sounding similar was
that of the Greater Yellowlegs. I think this might
be the source of the confusion. And Bill Evans'
recording made in Florida is probably identified
correctly (of course, there's no way to verify
this unless someone has done a detailed analysis
of the songs of both species).

If this is the case, then someone should state
this clearly in BirdChat. You can say I chimed in,
and said regrettably that we didn't have a
recording of the Lesser's courtship song, so it
was not included in the guide. I concur with James
Remsen that Lesser's have a courtship song that
sounds very similar to the Greater's, so making
and ID based solely on song might be difficult and
misleading. The calls, however, are easier to
distinguish.

Lang
=====================================
3rd: email +++++++++++++++++++++
Jack:

I just did a comparison of yellowlegs recordings
from Stokes Eastern, Stokes Western, and Peyton's
Alaskan Guide (Cornell). The results are totally
clear:

All three guides give examples of courtship song
of the Greater Yellowlegs, and these recordings
sound basically the same, the songs of this
species being lower in frequency and
fuller/brighter than the Lesser's. So all these
recordings are identified correctly, at least in
my estimation.

Of the three guides, only Peyton's Alaskan bird
song guide includes an example of the Lesser's
courtship song, which is thinner and more higher
pitched than the songs of the Greater. I can hear
a clear difference, even though the pattern is
generally the same.

Also, I looked at calls for both species in all
three guides and it appears that they are all
identified correctly.

So the problem you encountered was simple: The
Stokes Guide did not include an example of the
Lesser's song, hence the only recording that
sounded similar to what you heard was the
Greater's song.

If we ever revise the Stokes Guide, we'll be sure
to find a recording of the Lesser's song for
comparison.

Please post this information on BirdChat.

Lang
=====================================
I wrote back that I agreed that my ID of the song
was based on the Stokes recordings and this is why
I believed the bird was the 'Greater'. While I
'own' the Payton set of Alaskan bird songs, it is
not currently in my possession and I was not able
to use it in my 'presentation'.
=====================================
Lang has posted the audio files (MP3) on the
following page:
=====================================
<http://www.naturesound.com/yellowlegs/yellowlegs.html>
=====================================

--
-- Jack --
=====================================
Poway, California (San Diego Co.)
N 32° 57'  W 117° 04'
At 508' Elevation
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