[Maine-birds] Amazing 3-Hawk Mimicry by Blue Jay, Mystery Bird Call Challenge & Oxford Co. Breeding RBWOs

On Thursday I got a good quality recording of a Blue Jay in the backyard doing over 2 minutes of uninterrupted and very impressive hawk impersonations of 3 species, starting with Broad-winged, seguing into Cooper's and ending with Red-shouldered (all species found in this area).  List with audio segment here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S69850124

I've posted previously about the impressive mimicry of the local Blue Jays.  This particular one's been doing very loud hawk impressions at the top of the suet feeder tree before descending to the feeder, the same 3 species as listed above, with Broad-winged being the most common imitation The purpose of this behavior may be territorial, or is it just trolling the other songbirds?  It certainly upsets the nearby nesting Robins, as can be heard in the audio clip.

In a related topic, I captured some puzzling audio at Mountain Division trail in Brownfield on Tuesday, adjacent to the Eastern Slope Airport.   If there are any ear birders out there who'd like a challenge, the audio along with an isolated clip of the mystery call (under miscellaneous "passerine sp." at the bottom of the list) are here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S69700214 .

Initially I thought this might be a Grasshopper Sparrow as the timing and duration of the initial chip and trill are similar to a GRSP's song.  However the pitch is noticeably flatter and the trill looser sounding than that species, so it can likely be ruled out.  There's also what I think is a Black-throated Blue Warbler (??) calling immediately before the unknown chip & trill... it's a little hard to hear the first time because a Black-and-White Warbler is calling simultaneously, but can be heard singing by itself later in the full recording. 

Times for the mystery calls are included with the audio files... unlike the Blue Jay recording, the volume level is somewhat low but there are no volume "bumps", so safe to listen to on headphones.   Super ear birders, let's see what you can make of this.

Additionally the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers on Main Street and Hiram have been working in shifts gathering large mouthfuls of suet several times daily, always flying away in the same direction.  Looks like an Oxford County occurrence of breeding for the species...we'll see if any juveniles show up at the suet.

Sean Smith

Hiram

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