Distant calls can sound strange

Scott Veirs — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:21:19 +0000

This evening from about 17:00 to 21:00 there were some great calls heard by humans and auto-recorded at Orcasound (and to a much more limited extent at Lime Kiln). Early on (listen to the 17:00-19:00 hour recordings), the calls were faint but the background noise level was low (~97 dB re 1 microPa). The result was a series of calls that sounded pretty strange, especially with the echoes that were audible under such quiet conditions.

These S4 calls are reminiscent of low-frequency calls from a baleen whale, like a humpback, complete with echoes:
PWRAveDb_96_01_23_2011_17_51_08.mp3

And these S10 calls (and whistles?) make for a very unusual recording:
PWRAveDb_97_01_23_2011_19_06_25.mp3

The complete suite of 79 detections (only 1 from Lime Kiln) are listed below:

2011-01-23 17:48:43 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 17:50:04 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 17:51:08 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 17:55:20 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 18:04:12 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 18:04:36 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 18:12:33 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 18:12:48 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 18:15:12 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 18:53:49 node=os dB=98 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:02:23 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:04:13 node=os dB=98 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:06:25 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:08:24 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:08:48 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 19:11:06 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 19:25:40 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:36:04 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:40:08 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:43:38 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:44:17 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:45:32 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:46:07 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:49:21 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 19:55:51 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 19:57:28 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 19:57:43 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 19:57:58 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 19:58:24 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 19:59:12 node=os dB=97 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:00:07 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:01:38 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:03:20 node=lk dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:03:49 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:04:40 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:04:55 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:05:32 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:05:51 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:06:06 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:07:42 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:07:57 node=os dB=94 trigger=PKTPWR	2011-01-23 20:08:14 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:09:30 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:13:26 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:15:03 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:15:33 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:15:48 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:17:16 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:17:31 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:23:47 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:24:48 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 20:25:03 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:27:07 node=os dB=94 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:30:16 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:31:01 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:32:25 node=os dB=98 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:32:48 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR	2011-01-23 20:33:31 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:34:10 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:35:48 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:36:03 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKTPWR	2011-01-23 20:36:18 node=os dB=95 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:36:45 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:37:32 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:38:04 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:38:30 node=os dB=98 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:38:45 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:39:00 node=os dB=97 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:39:15 node=os dB=95 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:39:30 node=os dB=96 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:39:48 node=os dB=97 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:40:51 node=os dB=97 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:41:06 node=os dB=97 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:41:21 node=os dB=96 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:45:15 node=os dB=98 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:45:30 node=os dB=97 trigger=PWR
2011-01-23 20:47:14 node=os dB=98 trigger=PKT	2011-01-23 20:47:29 node=os dB=98 trigger=PKT
2011-01-23 20:51:56 node=os dB=100 trigger=PWR

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Distant calls can sound strange