It seemed so innocent: i had bought two vinyl records with sounds of birds around the Naardermeer, a national park in the Netherlands, with birds like the cuckoo, black and common tern, and..the great crested grebe. I switch on my record player, put the needle on the record, but instead of hearing the great crested grebe i hear this:

What is this? This can’t possibly be a grebe? It sounds more like a man who is being killed by drowning. I searched the internet for how a grebe should sound like, but all that i found are recordings that sound pretty normal.

But if this isn’t a bird, what is it then? Did somebody accidentally switch the master tapes for a radio play (‘Murder on the Titanic’) for the tapes of the bird recordings? Or would it be a bad joke from somebody who likes to scare bird lovers? Do you have any ideas?

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8 comments

• Dirk 2007-01-17 on 23:50

  Wellicht een evp?

  check wiki : evp

• needle park 2008-04-23 on 05:33

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• record player needles 2008-05-02 on 05:38

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• grebe 2008-07-10 on 23:00

  […] on the record, but instead of hearing the great crested grebe i hear something that sounds like ahttp://www.haykranen.nl/2007/01/14/is-this-a-bird-or-somebody-being-drowned/Latest on states endangered list: Ten species are much safer, but fifteen now in trouble Foster’s […]

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• Anonymous 2010-03-08 on 22:14

  Sounds to me like it’s being played back at the wrong speed.