Sorry about that. I threw in that "not" out of nowhere. My bad. I was trying to suggest that they call less frequently at night than those other taxa. I agree with you completely Mike - robins must be on the extreme low end. In the fall, I see hundreds to thousands at dawn returning off the Gulf after a good front (as I do Yellow-rumps, Indigos, thrushes, etc), but I never record robins and I record lots of the other guys.
Again my apologies to everyone for the confusion. Erik On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Michael Lanzone <mlanz...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Erik, > > If I understand you correctly, your saying you haven't heard them at night, > but are making the assumption that the calling rate is "probably not much > less frequently than other thrushes, buntings, warblers,tanagers, orioles, > and sparrows." I am just curious how you are coming to that conclusion. At > least here and our other stations (from Erie, PA to southern Appalachians) > there is a big difference in calling rate between those species, and Robins > seem to be on the extreme low end compared with their relative abundance > during migration. I'd be curious to hear some other thoughts/experiances > with Robins. > > Best, > Mike > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Apr 13, 2010, at 1:05 PM, Erik Johnson <ejoh...@tigers.lsu.edu> wrote: > >> Along the gulf coast in the fall, I have witnessed large pre-dawn >> movements of American Robins that are returning north after presumably >> realizing that they are over water (the Gulf) as daylight approaches. >> This return flight can last up to one hour after sunrise, although it >> typically peaks just before sunrise. I have always assumed this means >> they were traveling south in the dark hours of the night. I have >> played around with some nocturnal recording, but have yet to get a >> flight call of a robin in the spring or fall - about 30 mi north of >> the Gulf in south-central Louisiana. If they do call, it's probably >> not much less frequently than other thrushes, buntings, warblers, >> tanagers, orioles, and sparrows, at least based on my local experience >> here. >> >> Cheers, >> Erik Johnson >> S Lafayette, LA >> ejohn33 AT lsu.edu >> >> >> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 11:54 AM, Ted Floyd <tfl...@aba.org> wrote: >>> >>> Hi, all. >>> >>> I ponder this question a lot. In all my experience in Colorado, I have >>> heard >>> exactly one (1) flight call from a robin that seemed to be an on-the-go >>> nocturnal migrant. (For comparison, I've heard more flight calls from >>> nocturnal-migrant Western Grebes and Eastern Kingbirds in Colorado.) I've >>> flushed a lot of robins by night, but that doesn't really count. >>> >>> In Boulder County, Colorado, then, I'd say that robins are practically >>> silent as nocturnal migrants, or they simply do not migrate by night. I >>> frequently see (and hear) heavy, medium-altitude robin passages that go >>> strong right to around sundown, but then the flights suddenly end at >>> nightfall. >>> >>> Daytime "Vis Mig" of American Robins is striking (visual and audible) in >>> the >>> Front Range region of Colorado, comparable to the heavy daytime flights >>> of >>> Common Grackles in early spring. >>> >>> Ted Floyd >>> tfl...@aba.org >>> Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado >>> >>> ________________________________ >>> From: bounce-5534264-9667...@list.cornell.edu >>> [mailto:bounce-5534264-9667...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Michael >>> O'Brien >>> Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 1:59 PM >>> To: Jeff Wells >>> Cc: NFC-L@cornell.edu >>> Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Night flight call station results-Maine-April 1-3 >>> >>> Jeff, >>> I'm interested in your assertion that American Robin is strictly a >>> diurnal >>> migrant. Perhaps that is true in some areas, but in Cape May it certainly >>> is >>> not. We regularly see massive American Robin flights at night, in fall at >>> least. These flights often continue or resume in the first few hours of >>> the >>> morning and again in the last hour or so of the day. During particularly >>> heavy flights, the movements may continue longer into the day, but my >>> estimation is that the bulk of the movement always takes place at night. >>> I >>> find their behavior to be much like that of Bobolink, only they seem to >>> be >>> less vocal. It would be interesting to know what others have observed and >>> if >>> the situation is different elsewhere. My guess is that the main >>> difference, >>> if any, is that robins call more frequently in certain situations and fly >>> more quietly in others. >>> good listening! >>> Michael O'Brien >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Jeff Wells" <jwe...@intlboreal.org> >>> To: NFC-L@cornell.edu >>> Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 2:42:45 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern >>> Subject: [nfc-l] Night flight call station results-Maine-April 1-3 >>> >>> I started my automated recording station for the season here in Maine on >>> Thursday night, April 1st. Although there were few calls each of the last >>> three nights, the numbers increased a little each night from about 10 the >>> night of the 1st to about 30 last night. There were a few Hermit Thrushes >>> the first night, 6 the 2nd and 12 the night of the 3rd. There were a few >>> Killdeer each night, a Wood Duck, and 4-10 sparrows each night with Song >>> and >>> White-throat plus a couple that may be American Tree Sparrow and a junco >>> or >>> two. A few other items of interest: >>> >>> >>> >>> -several nights had Herring Gull calls in the middle of the night that I >>> assume are night migrating birds; >>> >>> >>> >>> -several nights had the squeal flight calls of American Robins around >>> midnight. Although I sometimes have what I assume to be local >>> on-the-ground >>> robins sing and give ground alarm calls in the middle of the night, they >>> don't give the squeal calls. The acoustics of the recorded squeal calls >>> also >>> seem more like birds overhead. I suspect that, as unlikely as it seems, >>> that >>> these were night-flying robins when by all accounts the species is only a >>> diurnal migrant; >>> >>> >>> >>> -one night I had what sounded like a bit of song of a night-flying Hermit >>> Thrush. I typically get some night-flying birds in May that break out in >>> song or partial song while flying overhead but I had never picked that up >>> for Hermit Thrush. >>> >>> >>> >>> I posted some of the call files on my blog at: www.borealbirds.org/blog >>> >>> >>> >>> Jeff Wells >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> -- >> >> NFC-L List Info: >> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME >> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES >> >> ARCHIVES: >> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html >> 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html >> 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L >> >> 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 ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
