The place we're listening to sounds like a marsh but looks like a grassland. Actually, it's
a Willamette Valley wetland prairie that has been restored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service at their
William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, south of Corvallis, Oregon. In
addition to the Soras, whose doit calls dominate this cut, toward the end you get the fly-by of
a Wilson's Snipe giving a series of loud screech calls. At the very end is a resounding
Sora whinny, with an answer by another bird midway through it. If you go to the Ebird
list you can hear the Western Meadowlarks that were recorded at the same location a few minutes
earlier.
Willamette Valley wetland prairie and the oak savannas that fringe it were
perilously close to disappearing until a number of organizations stepped into the breach and
began
measures to restore the habitat and preserve the endemic species that depend on it. Among these
are the Oregon Vesper Sparrow and the Streaked Horn Lark, along with many other animals and plants.