The Vocalizations of Eurasian Jay; The VisMig Files #1

In this episode, Wild Bird Acoustics presents a brace of sound magazines for your enjoyment. The first of these, The Vocalizations of Eurasian Jay, is an intimate look at a wonderful woodland species. This characterful corvid has a fascinating range of calls and a quite remarkable proclivity for mimicry. This charming species has fascinated me for some time. Spending a large amount of time in woodland habitat over the course of spring 2025 has finally allowed me to collect enough quality audio of Eurasian Jay to put together a dedicated sound magazine, detailing the voice and habits of this endearing, intelligent corvid.

Regarding the second half of this episode, we will travel northward to the coastal Västerbotten once again and sample the sounds of Autumn. At this remarkable location each year, migrant birds move southwards, directly  past my listening station on the island of Hällögern. Join me as I share some of the passive recording highlights from the island of Hällögern...

Transcript

 You are all very welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and I'll be taking you on a journey into sound.

Now. Welcome everybody to Wild Bird acoustics Once again, you're all very, very welcome to season three episode three. This will be going out on New Year's Day. For the first time, I've decided to put out three episodes on New Year's Day, just to give you a little bit extra to listen to over the new year period on the holidays.

So I hope you're all very relaxed. You have your feet up, and we can just relax now to a couple of sound magazines here at the podcast.

Now before I move on, a quick shout out to Carlo Monan from Italy. He was recently in touch about some microphones he was thinking of buying. Was fantastic to hear that he's been enjoying the podcast and is out there himself now doing a little bit of field recording.

So best of luck with the new microphones Carlo. And as always, it's great to hear from listeners and it's wonderful to think that this is encouraging people to get out there into the field and do a little bit of field recording.

Now I'm gonna get straight into the first Sound magazine folks.

Now over the course of 2025, I spent a lot of time in the Woodlands at Tierson National Park, and I became particularly fascinated with Eurasian Jay. They're very, very common here in Sweden. You'll come across them in any patch of Woodland, but Tierson National Park is fantastic for these species. Now, over the course of a couple of months, I regularly came to contact with large groups breeding pairs and.

The vocalizations were quite incredible and I got a lot of recordings of the species, and what I thought I'd do is put a sound magazine together just concerning the vocalizations of Eurasian J. It's an incredible species. I learned so much from them in 2025. I won't talk about it too much. We'll just get straight into that sound magazine.

This is the vocalizations of Eurasian J.

 Now you're all very welcome to another sound magazine here at Wild Bird Acoustics. And in this sound magazine, we're going to be delving into a fascinating species, and that is Eurasian Jay. Now, I became very, very interested indeed in this species over the course of 2025, mainly wild recording at National Park.

The more recordings I got of these birds, the more fascinated I actually became with them. And what I'm gonna do in this sound magazine is run through some of the incredible vocalizations of this species. It's incredibly varied, a very interesting bird vocally, and I hope you're gonna enjoy some of these recordings folks.

Now in spring of 2025, I was very active at Tears National Park, and I regularly came across Jays in various habitats. Generally speaking, in the more mature forests. And they're very, very characterful birds. I became very, very attached to them. Quite often. They were following me around giving vocalizations.

They're very, very intelligent, and the more I watched and listened to these birds, the more interested I became in them. I'm gonna start off with a recording from the 15th of April, 2025, and I just came across this group of words and they're giving some wonderful calls. I thought this would be a nice way to open up this sound magazine.

Now in this recording, there's some ation siskin in the background. You'll hear those right through the recording, but this starts off with some of the more typical kind of raucous calls of Jay. And then we're gonna hear some more unusual calls. It's very difficult to describe this call. It sounds almost like a toy, a windup toy.

And also here you'll hear a call that sounds quite like the low call, the Chuck call of Common Blackboard, but that is also Eurasian J here. We're gonna have a listen to the recordings just over two and a half minutes long, and I think it's a nice little introduction into this piece. Have a listen.

Now it's a very interesting call that, and I haven't had a shorter recording of it. This recorded at knee four is just a few days previous on the 12th of April, 2025, and it's just a JA here chuckling away to itself. There's a couple of people far away in the background, but not too intrusive. And it's just one of the better recordings I got of this particular call of Eurasian Jay.

Now the next recording I have for you, also from April and from a little area called Nero, she. Interiors to National Park, and it's a lovely recording of some quiet calls of Eurasian Jay once again, and a nice bit of creaking branch in the background. Also, a lot of chaffing here in the background. You'll hear them singing and give them various calls, but the main subject here, once again, Eurasian Jay, wonderful recording.

Have a listen.

The next recording I have for you came on the 15th of March, a little further back in time. I was out today for Red Cross Bill and in actual fact you can hear the calls of Red Cross Bill in the background. I was trying to track down a singing mail and I was just moving around the forest trying to record that particular bird.

A Red Cross bill went. I crossed paths with this J and once again, some wonderful quiet calls, chuckling calls. And this bird was very, very aware of my presence, but it wasn't too bothered, and it was just moving quietly around. And a little while later I realized it was the second bird present, and this led me to find a nest little bit later in the year.

So once again, this is calls from J again, quiet calls, and very, very typical of the species early in the spring. A wonderful recording taken with the Tinga Pala.

Now Jay is do Sing and it was something I really wanted to record in 2025. It's very inobtrusive and it's quite difficult to notice sometimes, but I got a wonderful recording of a singing Jay. T Edward shared it with the SM mini recorders. I'm gonna play that for you now quite long. It's almost five minutes long, but it's a wonderful, wonderful soundscape of the forest.

Early in the morning in the background, you can hear some siskin and song chaffing, cult hit goldcrest, that type of thing. But listen carefully at the start of this recording and you will hear what appears to be common buzzard calling, and also the calls of Goshawk. But an actual fact that is Ian j and I'll come onto that fairly shortly, but like I say, URA J do give this wonderful, wonderful song and this recording, if you listen carefully, you'll hear something that sounds almost like a woodpecker tapping a branch, but in actual fact, it's bill snapping by Ian J.

And they seem to do this quite often when they're singing. Well, it's a lovely recording. This is your Agent J, just giving song quietly at Nedra Sheret. And it just gives a wonderful range of low calls, bill snapping, and it goes on for about four or five minutes. Quite wonderful. Have a listen.

Now we're gonna move on to something I became increasingly interested in and his mimicry of predators by Eurasian Jay. Kind of an aggressive mimicry where they mimic predators in order to keep people or predators away from their nest. And in this recording, what you're gonna hear is a group of Jay moving through the forest.

I'm actually there with my tling problem. The birds are very, very aware of my presence. And after about 38 seconds into this recording, you will hear the birds begin to mimic common buzzard. Now, mimicry of common buzzard is the most common predatory mimicking these species do. It's quite common interiors national park, and I suspect elsewhere.

It's a remarkable mimicry. Incredibly good. And like I say, about 38 seconds into this recording, the words begin to mimic. Common buzzard. We'll have a listen to that now and then I'll get a little bit more into that kind of mimicry of predators by these species.

Now I have another, a shorter recording from the same morning, the same location of birds mimicking common buzzard. I'm gonna play that for you now. This is a short recording of Eurasian J. We're making common buzzard.

Now it's not just common buzzard that you're at. Using Jay habitually mimic, and in this recording you're gonna hear mimicry of both common buzzard and northern Goss hawk and other species they like to actually mimic. Now on this occasion, I was sitting there quietly. I saw hood crow fly in was probably a nest in the area and almost straight away, straight after the crow flew in.

The birds began to mimic common buzzard and northern goshawk, and what these birds are trying to do is actually frighten the crow away. Northern Goshawk in particular is a formidable predator and hooded crow pretty much promptly left the area. Worked very, very well again, quite remarkable mimicry. It's difficult to tell the difference, but I've lost count now of the amount of occasions I've been in the forest and thought.

There's a northern goshawk or a common buzzard only to check myself, and when you sit down quietly and have a look, you realize the culprit is in fact, Ian J. This is a wonderful recording of mimicry by Ian J of both those species, like I say, common buzzard and northern goshawk have a.

Another recording now of a group of Jay in the forest. And again, some quiet memory of Northern Gus Hawk here. Once again, quite remarkable and the birds eventually revert to their usual rockus calls that you will often hear from the birds as they move through the forest. So a very typical recording in some ways, but once again, mimicry here of Northern Goshawk.

Now another recording. This time of Eurasian J mimicking common buzzard, multiple birds at the same time. Mimicking common buzzard and it's actually got to the stage now where it's very difficult to trust. Any passive recordings that I think might be common buzzard or northern goshawk in this part of the world at tier to National Park have a list of this folks.

This is multiple jazz having a go mimicking common buzzard. Like I say, it's a very, very common call by this species that here to National Park.

Now another recording. Very, very close this time with the Tinga Pbla, and this is a fantastic recording of a pair of Eurasian j mimicking Northern Gus Hawk. Again, the culprit was a hooded crow. The birds wanted 'em out of the area. This is close to a nest site and once again, it's aggressive mimicry. And the aim of the species, that is the aim of the Eurasian Jays, is to get the hooded crow well away from the nest.

And I can tell you it worked quite well. Both birds just started up doing northern goshawk and the bird vacated very, very quickly. So once again, this is mimicry of Northern Goshawk by Eurasian jay.

Now another, the recording for you. Quite interesting. And this time again, it's rating J me, making common buzzard that starts at about 17 seconds into this recording. But then listen, as the bird morphs into what I think is mimicry of white-tailed eagle, perhaps not a perfect impression of these species, but quite convincing.

And there were a pair of white-tailed eagles quite regularly near this bird's location. At over a shards. Have a listen. First of all, you're gonna hear some calls from Jay, then some mimicry of common buzzard. And then some higher pitch calls, which I think may be an attempt at mimicry of white-tailed eagle.

That's a little sound magazine about Eurasian Jay and I would say if you have your Asian J close to your home, if you were interested in field recording birds. Eurasian Jay is very much a species worthy of attention. They're incredibly interesting vocally. They have a wide range of vocalizations, and I became very, very attached.

And during the course of 2025, quite often when I was moving through the forest, I often felt. I was getting tracked by these birds quite often, singly or in groups and of no doubt whatsoever, that was actually the case on many occasions. These birds are incredibly intelligent, incredibly inquisitive, and I would recommend any field recorder to spend a little bit of time with them now over the course of 2025, this species just, I dunno, just kind of connected with me somehow.

And I wanted to share that with you at Wild Bird Acoustics. So like I say, if you have Eura J in your area, definitely a species worth a little bit of attention and absolutely wonderful species, and I've very, very much enjoyed my time with them in 2025. In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed this sound magazine.

That's all for me, Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics.

Now. There you go everybody. I hope you did enjoy that. An absolutely fascinating species Rai J I'm sure I'll spend more time with them, they are an incredible vocalist. Very, very smart birds, very intelligent, and I just like spending time with them when a Mel Field.

Recording.

Now we're gonna move along straight away. I have another sound magazine for you, and this one concerns the Autumn up on the coast of Vast Button. Another place I visit every year. I'll never tired of that either, and I love being out there, especially during the period of autumn migration.

Now, as many of you will know, I have a listing station up there . And I just recently got through the audio from my SM mini recorder, which is stationed on the island. And all of this audio that you will hear in this sound magazine comes from the 2024 Autumn.

I have plenty to share with you all the SM mini recorder, and we'll get into that straightaway. Enjoy this, folks. This is the Viss MIG Files from VA button in 2024.

 Welcome everybody to Wild Bird Acoustics once again, and we're going to be concentrating on the Vis MIG files in this sound magazine now in 2024, my listening station at Halligan was very, very active, and as always, I left my recorder to record into the early hours of the morning, and it picked up quite a lot of nice audio in August, September, October, and indeed November.

In 2024, I actually left the recorder out. I was using ANM Mini. I got seven weeks recording time on it, and that meant that the recorder ran well into November, which was a bit of a boon as I had never really checked out November on the island before. Now we have some lovely audio to share with you, and I'm gonna start with a very common species early in this season, and this came on the 25th of August, 2024.

It's a will of Warbler. Very, very close to the recorder. Passage Bird just moving through the island, giving a little call. And this goes on for about a minute and a half to some gray light Goose in the background. A little bit noisy, but happily, the bird is very close to the SM mini recorder, so it's a nice recording, quite windy on the morning.

You can hear the foliage being blown around in the row tree above the recorder where the bird was probably moving through. So this is the first recording for you, and this is Willow Warbler, the 25th of August, 2024.

Now having played Willow War, I thought it would be sensible next to play Ch Chaff. A very, very similar species to look at and Chief Chaff come through on the island a little bit later than Will a warbler. Typically will a warbler move through at the end of August and early September. Whereas Shiff chaff go through at the end of September, right through October and possibly even into November.

Now they sound quite different once you get your ear in on the species, especially here in VA button, quite often the calls are quite distinctive. Now I'm gonna play a recording of a calling Chief Chaff. Again, just moving over the recorder. Probably in the Rowan tree where the recorder is situated on the island.

It's a nice recording. This is Chief Chaff recorded on the 24th of September, 2024. Have a listen folks.

So there you go. That's Chief Jeff, and I think you can hear the difference straightaway there from Willow Warbler. Now, before I move on, I should probably say that I recommend that you wear headphones as always here on the podcast, but particularly for these vis MIG files and knock mig files sections like this one, quite often the calls given by these migrant birds are quiet and soft and quite distant from the microphones.

And it can help greatly to wear headphones as a result. I'm gonna move on to one of my favorite species, and it is rambling, and I have a couple of lovely recordings for you from early October, 2024. I'm gonna play one of those for you straight away. Right now we recorded on the 8th of October, 2024. This is rambling.

A very short recording and many of these will be quite short as quite often the birds go through very, very quickly. Now in that recording, there was also a calling Hooded Crow. I'm sure you probably picked up on that. And in this next recording also of rambling in early October, 2024, you will hear some Cisco moving over at the start before the rambling call very close to the recorder.

Again, lovely ambiance from a bit of light rain in this one. Once again, this is rambling at Hagar in Vata button in early October, 2024.

Now we're gonna move on to another favorite species of mine, another regular species, and that is both inch. Now. I absolutely love this call. Now, of course, the birds in Northern Sweden typically call quite differently to those say in the UK and Ireland. And they're often referred to as Northern Bulfinch.

I have a wonderful recording for you now. It's a small group of birds actively migrating. Going right over the recorder, just listened to these lovely mellow whistles from a group of migrating bulfinch. This was recorded in mid-October 2024, and it's a particularly nice recording. Have a listen.

Now, next up, a stunning recording of a both inch. In the background, you're gonna hear an absolutely wonderful bit of ambiance. So many thrush around on this morning. This was the 12th of October, 2024. Now in this recording, you're gonna hear some fly calls from a bullfinch before another bird starts to call.

Incredibly close to the recorder. It's a wonderful closeup. Sound recording. Have a listen to this, folks. This is Bulfinch at Haller.

Next up a slightly longer recording of a group of wolf inch industry just above the recorder. Fantastic recording. Just nut hatch, some Jay and other birds in the background. You can listen now for those. But there's some wonderful calls here from Bulfinch Northern Bulfinch that is. And I just love the call.

As I said many times before, it's particularly beautiful, just this lovely fluting, clear, mellow whistle, and it's a very nice call to listen to. This is quite a nice recording. It did come by seven o'clock in the morning and there was a bit of traffic, far in a distance and in this part of the world, noise from roads travels a long way.

So a rare bit of anthropogenic noise in this recording. But the birds are so close to the recorder, it doesn't really affect it too much. This is a wonderful recording of Bulfinch. Have a listen.

The next recording was taken on the 14th of October, 2024. It begins with Bulfinch once again. This time actively migrating birds. Now if you listen carefully, you are going to hear migrating Bulfinch for about the first 50 seconds or so. And then from 50 seconds onwards come a flock of Parrot Cross builds one of these specialties at Haller in late autumn.

A fantastic species. And this group went very close to the recorder. So initially it's Bull Inch here. And then a very nice recording of a passing group of Parrot Cross Bill. Have a listen to discipline folks.

The next recording is something a little bit different for you. It's a group of tufted duck giving call just on the water in front of the recorder. Now later in the autumn, it is not unusual for a diving duck to gather on the water in front of the recorder, and it's quite nice to record their calls. As I say, this is tough to duck.

Not sure whether it's male or female birds, but we'll get on it now short recording this tough to duck on the 19th of October, 2024.

I am gonna take you right back to early August now, the 11th of August, 2024, when I got this nice recording of European golden plover. Now, European golden plover is quite scarce on the island. I only have a handful of records, most of which were picked up by autonomous recorders. I've only actually seen them in the flesh on two occasions, as aware was they were doing migration watches.

So this is quite a scarce recording on the island now in the distance. In 2024, as was often the case, there were roadworks going on and it was very, very frustrating. At times when I was going through the audio, I had to discard quite a bit of audio as a result. But it's not too bad in this recording and because the bird goes over eventually so close to the recorder, I decided to keep this recording.

This is a lovely recording of European golden plover. Now in the distance, of course, the usual things going on, blue tits just swallows overhead distant crane in the distance. But listen here for the approach, the mellow whistle of European golden plover, and eventually it goes right over the recorder and leaves a lovely, clear, close call.

Have a listen.

Next up, a wonderful recording of the Eurasian hobby. Not the easiest species to record at the best of times, but the initial burst of call from this bird is remarkable. It's incredibly close to the recorder. You can hear some wing beats as well. I will let this recording run a little bit as the board gave a couple more strobes while moving around the area.

You can hear there's some swallows in the background. They must have been quite nervous with this bird in the area. This was recorded on the 14th of September, 2024. Like I say, a wonderful recording of Eurasian hobby.

Now the next recording I have for you, it's quite nice, it's hoffen, and hoffen is actually very, very scarce on Hogar that far north in Sweden. Species is not regular at all, and in this recording you're gonna hear the place is just alive of birds. There's thrush species everywhere. There was missile thrush.

Field Fair Song, thrush and Red Wing all over the island on the 2nd of October, 2024. But listen carefully in the background and you will hear at least two half inch going over giving two types of call. This is quite a nice recording. Actively migrating half inches at Halle Garn in VA bottom.

Next up, a wonderful recording of Spotted Red Shank. My favorite waiter call, I think. And in the background here is some lovely song of cold tit as well, quite a simple recording. I'm just gonna play it for you now. This is a wonderful recording of bottled red shank on the 2nd of September, 2024.

Now the last recording I have for you is of a Fly by Hooper Swan, and this is a regular occurrence on the islands. Almost daily, in fact, if not daily. And it's quite easy sometimes to overlook these recordings because they are so regular. I thought I'd just share one of them with you. This was recorded on the 10th of September, 2024.

There's some cold hits, blue tits, gray tits, all that kind of stuff in the background. But the main feature here is a flyby of Hooper Swan. A wonderful sound in this part of the world. Have a listen.

So there you go folks. That's the vis MIG Files, some wonderful, wonderful Ottum audio for you all from the coast of Ava button here in Northern Sweden. And I would just say folks quickly that all of the audio we heard in this sound magazine was recorded with the wildlife acoustics sound meter two mini recorder.

The second generation model, the lion two, and I leave this out up there for up to seven weeks at a time, and that allows me to have a listening station running. Like I say, I can leave it out for seven weeks at a time. I go up in the summer, leave around late July, leave it out for August, most of September, pop up for the last week of September, place the batteries put in a new SD card, and then the recorder is good to go until the early part of November.

An absolute incredible device with a very long battery life, completely weatherproof. And I absolutely recommend this recorder for this kind of recording. Autonomous recording. It's a wonderful tool for the field recorder and for anybody just generally interested in monitoring bird migration in an area you can't get into all the time.

Just get one of these bad boys down if you can, and they're incredible recorders. Now, that's all from me, Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics. This was just a quick sound magazine for you. I hope you have really, really enjoyed it. I love this audio, this autumnal audio from this part of the world. It gives you a little glimpse into what goes on there during the autumn.

As always, I hope you have enjoyed the Sound magazine, and we'll see you here next time at Wild Bird Acoustics.



So there we are. That's the VISIC files from Haller and VA button. All of that audio, as I say, from the autumn of 2024. Now a lot of our listeners are based in Holland, amongst other places, and they're very, very interested in vis mig.

So I hope these sound magazines are of interest to you guys and that you have enjoyed them. Now we're gonna move along and wrap it up pretty three. I'm just editing and putting the podcast together and it's incredible how much audio I've had to go through in order to put this season together. I was just doing a few quick calculations. I figure I've been now just under 500 hours actively recording over the course of 2025

and incredibly, I've gone through about 2,200 hours of passive audio from SM mini recorders, and I still have another 2000 hours to actually check over the remainder of the winter. So an incredible amount of audio. I still have to get through my Knock Me audio from Hort, my main listening station, and just to wrap up the five year study there. And I still have to check most of August, September, October and November from that site.

So I'll probably have a surplus of audio. Like I say, I'll probably use some of that in season four next year. But for the moment, if we're looking good for season three,

Now, there's a huge amount of work involved in the podcast.

Actually collecting the audio in the field is the biggest job, as well as actually just checking all of the audio from my passive recorders on the desktop. But I do enjoy it very, very much. And like I say, it's great to see the fruits of this coming together now that I'm actually getting towards the end of the editing process for the third season of the podcast.

I hope you're gonna enjoy that. And as always, feedback is very, very welcome. Don't be afraid to get in touch with me at Wild Bird acoustics@gmail.com.

Now for now, I'm gonna let you go and I hope you enjoy the rest of the holidays, folks. I wish you all good birding in 2026. We'll see again in a couple of weeks. This is Alan Dalton signing out at Wild Bird Acoustics.

 So that brings us to the end of another episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, and I hope you've enjoyed it. As always, you can find us on YouTube by simply searching for wild bird acoustics. We do have a mailing list also, and if you want to be part of that folks, you can drop us an email at Wild Bird acoustics@gmail.com.

Now all feedback is greatly received here at the podcast. And if you'd like to write review of the podcast, you can do so at the buzzsprout header page. In addition, if you'd like to make a small financial donation to the podcast, you can do so using the buy me a Coffee button, and you'll find that also on the Buzzsprout header page.

We will be back in a couple of weeks with more from wild bird acoustics. Until then, take it easy, folks, and as always, don't be afraid to get out into the field and relax and just listen to the wildlife out there. Maybe even do a little bit of field recording of your own. We'll talk to you soon, folks.

Take it easy. That's all from Wild Bird Acoustics.