"Mating Call" Telephone Book

Welcome message to play automatically when someone lifts the receiver (Laura to record):
Welcome to Mating Call, brought to you by Panoramica and Blossom Meadow Farm.
Scan the QR code to explore our telephone book, then dial a number to hear who's looking for love on the North Fork.  After all, we're all just trying to find each other...

1 — Red Fox — Vulpes vulpes
Peak Courtship: January–February.
Acoustic notes: Females produce shrill, blood-curdling shrieks “The Vixen Scream” to summon males from a distance during the winter mating season. It is frequently mistaken at night for a screaming child or someone in distress. Male foxes also produce barks, screams and other calls used in social and territorial communication.
Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTx8RxK3hqQ&t=3s
Recording Citation:

2 — American Mink — Neogale vison
Peak Courtship: February–March.
Acoustic notes: Minks are notoriously solitary and territorial for much of the year. During the late winter mating season, males mark their territory with strong and very smelly scent messages that invite females in and tell rival males to back off. When a male and female mink meet, things get loud and dramatic fast. Courtship is a vigorous pursuit and interaction accompanied by clucking, chuckling, and sometimes squealing. The whole process is brief but intense, and while a pair may hang out for a day or two before mating, they part soon after to look for other partners.  
Audio: https://xeno-canto.org/962088
Recording Citation: Alan Dalton, XC962088. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/962088.

3 - American Woodcock — Scolopax minor
Peak courtship: March–April
Acoustic Notes: The male performs one of North America's most remarkable courtship displays. At dusk, he makes a nasal, insect-like peent, spirals high into the air on twittering wings, and then descends with a series of musical chirps. His elaborate performance combines vocal calls with sounds produced by his wings, an impressive musical composition!
Audio: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scolopax_minor_-_American_Woodcock_XC133923.ogg

Please use the segment where you hear the peent, peent, peent…..
Recording Citation: Jongsma, Jonathon. May 16, 2013. American Woodcock (Scolopax minor), flight call and song. Xeno-canto XC133923. Cannon River Wilderness Area, Minnesota.

4 - Wood Frog — Lithobates sylvaticus
Peak courtship: March-early April
Acoustic notes: As winter loosens its grip, male wood frogs converge on temporary woodland pools to attract females. Their surprisingly ducklike quacking creates a loud chorus that can sound like a flock of ducks. The mating frenzy may only last a few days.
Audio: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wood_Frogs_(Lithobates_sylvaticus)_-_West_Windsor,_New_Jersey_2023-03-02.
Recording citation: Hodnett, Ryan. March 2, 2023. Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) — West Windsor, New Jersey. Wikimedia Commons.

5 — Weakfish — Cynoscion regalis
Peak Courtship: May-June
Acoustic notes: Male weakfish produce an assortment of underwater sounds, including low-frequency knocks, grunts, and rapid croaks, to attract females during the spawning season. Males generate these courtship calls by rapidly contracting and relaxing their sonic muscles to vibrate against their swim bladder. The swim bladder acts as an acoustic amplifier, radiating sound waves into the surrounding water. Males may gather in large spawning aggregations.
Audio: https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/fishes/weakfish/
Recording Citation: The rapid croaks were recorded during breeding season (May to August).
From CD Supplement to: Sounds of the Western North Atlantic Fishes by Fish & Mowbray, 1970. CD ©University of Rhode Island, 2001.

6 — Black Drum — Pogonias cromis
Peak Courtship: May–June 
Acoustic notes: During the spawning season, black drum produce some of the most powerful low-frequency sounds of any coastal fish in North America. In fact, a large spawning aggregation of black drum caused the walls and floors in nearby coastal homes (up to a mile or more away) to vibrate in southwest Florida. Black drum generate rhythmic, booming calls using specialized sonic muscles that flex rapidly against their hollow swim bladder, acting like a drumhead to amplify resonance. While males are the principal documented callers, females can also produce sound. Mating and courtship calls occur primarily from dusk and hours after nightfall.
Source: https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/fishes/black-drum/
Recording Citation: Black Drum. Sound courtesy of James Locascio and David Mann, University of South Florida College of Marine Science. Released under Creative Commons License, non-commercial attribution.

7 — Gray Treefrog —  Hyla versicolor
Peak Courtship: June
Acoustic notes: Male gray treefrogs produce a short, musical trill repeated every few seconds to attract females on warm, humid evenings. To amplify his song, he inflates a large vocal sac beneath his chin to transform his body into a powerful sound system. Males may call for hours, while encounters with rivals can produce squeaky chirps or yelps that signal aggression.
Source: https://open.spotify.com/track/0fhiYN6wAuYsXuDFQVVFkA?si=8d65662348324a8c  PLEASE CUT OUT THE GUY’S VOICE
Recording Citation: Bogert, Charles M., recorder. Sounds of North American Frogs. Folkways Records, 1958. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1998.

8 — Oyster Toadfish — Opsanus tau
Peak Courtship: June–July
Acoustic notes: The male oyster toadfish produces an extraordinary foghorn-like “boat whistle” to attract females to his hidden nest beneath rocks, shells, or other underwater structures. Specialized, ultra-fast sonic muscles vibrate his swim bladder to produce the sound. Both sexes also make coarse grunts and growls when disturbed. Acoustic research in nearby Shinnecock Bay found that toadfish mating calls occurred predominantly during daylight hours.
Source: https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/fishes/oyster-toadfish/
Recording Citation: Sounds of the Western North Atlantic Fishes by Fish & Mowbray, 1970. CD ©University of Rhode Island, 2001.

9 — Harbor Seal — Phoca vitulina
Peak Courtship: June–July. Although most harbor seals visit eastern Long Island during the winter, small numbers have been reported year-round, with occasional pupping documented around offshore islands.
Acoustic notes: Males use a number of vocalizations and displays to help them find a partner. This is a recording of a male harbor seal gurgling loudly in search of love.
Audio: https://www.facebook.com/reel/705716817555422
Recording citation: Blank Park Zoo Recording, 2023

* — Striped Cusk Eel — Ophidion marginatum
Peak Courtship: July-August
Acoustic notes: Sounds may be an important means of communication because they spawn at night in very turbid waters. Males produce rhythmic, pulsed chatter and females respond behaviorally to these calls. Sound production has also been reported in females. The sounds are produced by specialized sonic muscles that flex rapidly against their swim bladder.

Most striped cusk eel calling occurs at or just after dusk. In laboratory studies, male calling started just before sunset while the cusk eels were still in their burrows. Calling continued after the fish emerged from the sediment, peaking around one hour after sunset. Females often appeared to increase their calling activity in response to male sound production.
Source: https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/fishes/cusk-eel/
Recording Citation: Cusk Eel call recorded in a laboratory in August 1989. The recording was made in air with a conventional tape recorder. Sound Credit Rodney Roundtree, www.fishecology.org/

0  — Linne’s Cicada - Neotibicen linnei
Peak Courtship: August
Acoustic notes: Male Linne’s cicadas produce a high-pitched, rapidly pulsating call that starts softly, builds into a steady, saltshaker-like rattle, and ends abruptly, sometimes followed by a softer buzz. Males typically sing during warm summer days, flexing ridged membranes on their abdomen known as tymbals to make that signature trill. Their hollow abdomens act like tiny guitar bodies to crank up the volume. These cicadas are common in deciduous forests, city woodlots and parks throughout eastern North America.
Audio: https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/linnes-cicada
Recording Citation: Elliott, Lang, and Wil Hershberger. The Songs of Insects: A Guide to the Voices of Crickets, Katydids and Cicadas. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

# — Common True Katydid — Pterophylla camellifolia
Peak Courtship: August–September
Acoustic notes: The familiar “katy-did, katy-didn’t” chorus is one of the signature sounds of late summer on Long Island. Males produce their rhythmic calls by rubbing specialized structures on their forewings together, a process called stridulation. Neighboring males may alternate their calls, creating what sounds like a lively argument in the treetops. Females can also produce sounds, but the familiar nighttime mating chorus is primarily the males.
Audio: https://www.facebook.com/reel/230132479052344
Recording Citation: A recording by Lake County Forest Preserves, Lake County Illinois