Air Date: Week of January 31, 2025

A common goldeneye soars close to the waves. (Photo: © Andrew Reding CC, Courtesy of BirdNote®)

On a still winter afternoon, you may hear Common Goldeneyes flying low across the water. As Ernest Hemingway wrote, their wings make the sound of ripping silk. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports.

Transcript

DOERING: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Jenni Doering.

O’NEILL: And I’m Aynsley O’Neill.

[BIRDNOTE THEME]

O’NEILL: With the concerns about wild birds carrying avian flu these days, one of the great things about being a birdwatcher – if you’re so inclined -- is that you don’t have to get close to enjoy them. You just need to keep your eyes peeled -- and your ears, for that matter. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein has this one.

BirdNote®
Goldeneyes and Whistling Wings

Written by Todd Peterson

(Sound of Barrow’s Goldeneye wings in flight)

You may get to know these birds by sound as much as sight.

On a still winter afternoon, walking the shore of Puget or Long Island Sound, you’ll hear them coming low across the water. Goldeneyes, also known as “whistlers”, their wings sibilant, making the sound, as Ernest Hemingway wrote, of ripping silk.

(Waves lapping and whistling wings)

You’re likely to see their piercing golden eyes and the striking domino black-and-white of the male’s plumage as you board a ferry or travel by boat along the shore.

(Sound of ferry horn)

Sometimes in squadrons, they dive for crustaceans and mollusks.

Autumn brings both species of Goldeneyes, Common and Barrows. You’ll know the male Barrow’s by the half-moon of white between its brilliant yellow eye and short bill.
Enjoy them now while you can. In spring, goldeneyes will be gone, returning to the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska to breed and hatch their young in the cavities of trees. And you’ll have to wait until next November to hear again the music of their wings.

(Sound of goldeneye wings in flight)

I’m Michael Stein.

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Sounds of the Barrows Goldeneye provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recordist WWH Gunn.
Ambient provided by Kessler Productions

Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org November 2016/ 2018/ 2019/ 2024
ID#BAGO-01b-2019-11-10 BAGO-01b

O’NEILL: For pictures, fly on over to the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.

 

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