Click to listen to episode (4:32) Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Extra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-30-19. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 9, 2019. MUSIC – ~6 sec – instrumental This week, that excerpt of “The Oystermen’s Ball,” by Bob Michel, opens an episode on a bird known for its association with oysters and other shellfish. Have a listen for about 10 seconds to the following mystery sound, and see if you can guess this bird. And here’s a hint: catch a key word in the title of the music you just heard. SOUNDS - ~10 sec If you guessed an oystercatcher, you’re right! You heard the sound of an American Oystercatcher, one of two oystercatcher species in North America, out of several species found worldwide. The American Oystercatcher is found exclusively near saltwater along the United States’ mid-Atlantic coastline, along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, and along the Pacific coastline of western Mexico and Central America. This large bird inhabits beaches, mud flats, sand dunes, salt marshes, and dredge-spoil islands. There, in falling or low tides, it finds the shellfish—particularly oysters, clams, and mussels, collectively known as bivalve mollusks—on which oystercatchers are adapted to feed. An oystercatcher can use its distinctive, long, red-orange bill in various ways to get prey, including probing in the sand; stabbing the bill quickly inside a partially opened bivalve to cut the muscle that closes the two shell valves; and using the bill as a hammer to break open a closed shell. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, though, oystercatchers sometimes get caught by a bivalve closing its shell on the bird’s bill, threatening drowning the bird when high tide returns. Oystercatchers also have a special courting ritual, known as “piping.” The behavior typically involves two birds running beside one another, bobbing their heads up and down, and making loud calls. The birds often also take flight in tandem, and that may attract other pairs of birds into what is sometimes called a piping “tournament” or “ceremony.” The American Oystercatcher is distinctive in its colors, courtship, and prey-catching. Here’s a 19th-Century take on that distinctiveness, by John James Audubon: “Shy, vigilant, and ever alert, the Oyster-Catcher walks with a certain appearance of dignity, greatly enhanced by its handsome plumage and remarkable bill.” Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs. Thanks also to Bob Michel for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with about 20 more seconds of “The Oystermen’s Ball.” MUSIC – ~20 sec - instrumental SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The American Oystercatcher sounds were from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/. “The Oystermen’s Ball," from the 2004 album of the same name, is copyright by Bob Michel, used with permission. More in
