Residents of this community in Hangzhou often hear the sound of "dobbling" in the evening, the sound of piling machines? woodpecker? Experts say that none of them are nighthawks that have temporarily stopped in Hangzhou

The roof of the building that often makes sounds is photographed by Zhu Jiahao

City Letters

Yesterday Mr. Shu called 851000000: I am a resident of Kailin Lane Community in Jianggan District, since September this year, every night I can hear a sound like a siren, the source is near the Rural Agriculture Department on the side, went there to ask the security guard, the security guard said that he had seen a bird, always like to fly in the highest part of the office building to chirp, may be the sound of this bird, but do not know what kind of bird.

Every evening you can hear the sound of "dobbling"

Mr. Shu lives on the 2nd floor of the community, because this "strange" sound is relatively loud, he also recorded a relatively clear audio with his mobile phone, the audio is about 7 seconds, the sound is very rhythmic, "dodo-doo-doo", the volume is the same, at first glance, a bit like the sound of the construction site piling, but it is not so thick.

Mr. Shu said that when the sound began to appear, I can't remember exactly, it seems to have appeared in early September.

"The source of the sound came from the Rural Agriculture Hall, about 10 meters from my balcony." Mr. Shu said that at first he thought it was their siren, which was particularly penetrating and loud, and could still be heard by closing all the windows at night.

Mr. Shu said that his recordings were recorded with the windows open, and the birdsong began at 6 o'clock in the evening, ended at 9 or 10 o'clock at night, and sometimes began at 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening and ended at about 11 o'clock.

"Some time ago, one night, I found the security guard of the Rural Agriculture Department, just to find out what this sound is, is it their alarm sound? They said there was no alarm, probably a bird chirping.

"The security guards said they often heard the sound at night, and a few nights they saw the bird on the roof of the building in the courtyard, as if it were black." Mr. Shu said.

Aunt Zhang, who lives in Kailin Lane, came back from a walk, and also said that she had heard this sound, she said that it was probably in mid-September, and the sound sound seemed to come from the roof of the Agricultural Hall opposite, just opposite her balcony, estimated to be less than 20 meters, and the sound came to a loud, "Doldo-Dol", the time to start calling was not necessarily, 6:30 a.m. earlier, 8:00 p.m. later.

"It's a bit like the call of a sparrow, and a bit like the sound of a woodpecker knocking on a tree at the mouth, calling for five or six seconds to stop for two or three seconds to continue calling, but fortunately it will stop at most until ten o'clock at night, otherwise you won't sleep well." Aunt Zhang said.

Some security guards have seen a small bird calling

The south side of the Kailin Lane community is facing the Rural Agriculture Hall, separated from the Kailin Lane Community by a wall, the vegetation coverage rate in the Rural Agriculture Hall is OK, there is a "convex" glyph that rotates almost clockwise by 90 degrees, and the entrance is a rectangular large lawn, planted with several tall trees, and there are rows of trees between the surrounding and next door community walls.

Master Wei, who is in his fifties this year, has been working as a guard at the Rural Agriculture Department for more than ten years, and has been working as a day shift before, and has only begun to switch to night shift in the past two months.

He said that indeed this time began to hear a strange "dobbling" sound, it seems that the sound began to appear after dark, listening to more and getting used to it, there is no construction site nearby, certainly not the sound of the piledriver, a colleague said that he had seen it, it was a bird calling, the feathers of the bird were a little dark, and it was not clear what color it was in the dark, but he had not seen this bird with his own eyes.

"It seems to be calling all night, anyway, I haven't paid attention to the specifics, the sound of calling continues to be quite long, I have never heard this kind of call before when I was on the day shift." Master Wei said that he got up to take me to listen, but before the birds began at 7 o'clock last night, he told me that the sounds came from the top of the administrative building, about 20 meters high.

Master Wei said that this bird call was not very beautiful, anyway, it was not as crisp as the general bird call. "If it's early in the morning, the whole city is quiet, it sounds a little crazy, the sound is very penetrating, in the middle of the night, it sounds like the whole yard is its sound." 」

Master Wei led me to the back of the administrative building, but I still didn't hear the birds, I don't know why I didn't call today, whether the birds have flown away.

The bird expert listened to the call and said it was a nighthawk

Generally choose to stay temporarily in a place with a better environment

I sent the recordings of bird calls to Chen Shuihua, an expert in urban bird research, and Wu Xiaoli, deputy secretary general of the Hangzhou Bird and Ecology Research Association, and both experts said after hearing that the sound was the cry of an ordinary nighthawk.

"Nighthawks are mainly distributed in temperate and tropical regions, preferring to inhabit bamboo forests and jungles in sparse forests, bushes and farmland areas, with a short but particularly wide mouth, large eyes, a keen sense of hearing and vision, and like to constantly prey on small insects such as mosquitoes and moths in the air. Dark brown all over the body. I don't bark during the day, I like to call at night, and I make this rhythmic sound of 'clicking', generally calling for a companion or seeking a spouse. ”

Wu Xiaoli said that the appearance of nighthawks in Hangzhou is actually not common. Because the nighthawk is a migratory bird, it generally begins to migrate in the autumn, flying south to the south for winter, the destination is in Yunnan, or even southeast Asia and other places further south, and in the spring it begins to return to the north, and the destination is in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. Hangzhou is not their destination, but a resting place in the middle of the migration process, similar to a transit station.

Flying to Hangzhou is almost September, October, late summer and early autumn, generally to a rest place will choose a place with a better natural environment to temporarily settle down, before in Hangzhou most will appear in Zhejiang University Yuquan Campus or surrounding communities, or West Lake Scenic Area Botanical Garden and other ecologically better places, fall here to rest, supplement energy or breeding, but the specific stay for a few days, may be a day or two, may also be a month, due to individual differences may be different.

They came to Hangzhou as guests

As the weather gets colder, it will set off again for the south

Nighthawk breeding nests are relatively simple, in fact, there is no nest, generally directly lay eggs on the ground. 2 eggs are laid per clutch. It is certainly multifaceted for environmental requirements, suitable ecology or climate and so on.

In fact, nighthawks appear in the vicinity of the lively area of the city near the residential area, and now appear in the Kailin Lane community, indicating that the natural environment nearby is good, and it also shows that the overall ecology of Hangzhou has become better and better in the past two years.

Their louder calls may affect the rest of nearby residents, but please rest assured that they are guests in Hangzhou, will not stay too long, as the weather gradually becomes colder, after completing energy replenishment and reproduction, they will set off again, fly south, fly to a warm place for winter.

Yesterday (10 October) coincided with World Migratory Bird Day, and the theme of this year's World Migratory Bird Day is – Birds Connect Our World. Every season, migratory birds travel thousands of miles to and from their breeding grounds and wintering grounds, so migratory bird migration is known as one of the most spectacular natural scenes in the world. Protecting their long-distance migratory habitat is an important link in the ecological chain of migratory bird protection. It is a pleasure to be a stop for nighthawks to welcome you, guests from afar.