I think this was meant for the full list -- Thanks Ted!
Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu> Begin forwarded message: From: Ted Floyd <tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org>> Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Chipping Sparrows, eastern Boulder County, Colorado - and cuckoo lore Date: July 23, 2013 10:26:01 AM EDT To: "Kenneth V. Rosenberg" <k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu>> And lest we all think we discover new things, here is an excerpt I recently discovered while doing research on wintering migrants for a book project -- Bent's Life Histories never ceases to amaze me: On "the mid-summer mid-bight and mid-sky gyrations of the Black-billed Cuckoos" (from a letter from Gerald H, Thayer (1908) in sw. NH: "several years before we discovered the nocturnal-flight phenomenon, we bean to be puzzled by the extreme frequent of Hi, Ken et al. Here's an extraordinary paper from 1904: http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v021n01/p0045-p0050.pdf The author, Henry H. Kopman, describes how he figured out the flight call of the Veery. But what's mind-bending about this Henry Kopman is how much else he knew. In describing how commonly he heard Veeries, he just drops in this line: "[The Veery's nocturnal flight call] was caught up as frequently as the notes of Yellow Warblers, Indigo Buntings, Sandpipers, Green Herons, and Night Herons." 109 years ago, this guy knew Green Herons and night-herons. He knew Indigo Buntings. He even knew warblers! That's amazing to me. I think of warbler and sparrow flight calls as the last frontier of NFC ID, and yet Henry Kopman was on it, big time, more than a century ago. And then the story gets even weirder. Kopman just lost interest. As far as I can tell, he never published anything else on nocturnal flight calls (although he published on other topics). Yes, a few folks kept the flame alive (Peterson in his earlier guides, and Dick Pough too), but knowledge of NFS basically went underground until, as Ken says, Bill Evans was out delivering pizza one night... One other thought. The literature on nocturnal flight calls, ca. 1890-1910, is extensive. Kopman wasn't the only one, not by a long shot. Search the literature for O. G. Libby, Paul Griswold Howes, and others, and see for yourself! Ted Floyd tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org> Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado Ken, in Ithaca NY Sent from my iPhone On Jul 20, 2013, at 10:24 AM, "Jeff Wells" <jeffwe...@borealbirds.org<mailto:jeffwe...@borealbirds.org>> wrote: And I heard a Wood Thrush overhead around 10 PM a few nights ago here in Gardiner, Maine.... Jeff Wells Sent from my iPhone On Jul 20, 2013, at 4:44 AM, "Ted Floyd" <tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org>> wrote: Hello, everybody. A quick check-in here from somewhere other than the Cayuga Basin... :-) Chipping Sparrows are moving over Lafayette, eastern Boulder County, USA, in the 2am hour right now, Saturday, July 20th. We believe that these are birds bailing on their mountain breeding grounds for literally greener pastures in eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where they molt. Regardless, it's an annual phenomenon, beginning in mid-July (first nighttime detection this year for me was July 16th), in the night skies over the Denver metro area, and it's fascinating to witness. Ted Floyd tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org> Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
