[nfc-l] Grasshopper Sparrow and Black-billed Cuckoo

[Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes]

A couple of highlights from the past couple of nights:

Grasshopper Sparrow (I’m 98% confident…) called overhead twice, with the 
attached call being the loudest of the two, at 2:57am on 9 May.

Black-billed Cuckoo (first NFC for me this spring, yay!!) called overhead this 
morning, 10 May, at 4:53am; clip attached.

Good night listening!

Sincerely,
Chris T-H


[see attached file: ETNA_NY_20150509.025737_Grasshopper Sparrow.wav] [see 
attached file: ETNA_NY_20150510.045307_Black-billed Cuckoo YAY!.wav]

--
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 
607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp


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ETNA_NY_20150509.025737_Grasshopper Sparrow.wav
Description: ETNA_NY_20150509.025737_Grasshopper Sparrow.wav


ETNA_NY_20150510.045307_Black-billed Cuckoo YAY!.wav
Description: ETNA_NY_20150510.045307_Black-billed Cuckoo YAY!.wav

Re: [nfc-l] Sora? Southwestern Pennsylvania May 4, 3:43am

[Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes]

Hi Geoff,

Glad to hear that you are out there recording, listening, and reviewing.

Thanks for sharing your recording of this interesting call.

I think I’ll stick my neck out there and say that I’m in the Whimbrel camp on 
this one. The cadence and quality seem right for Whimbrel; it’s not a perfect 
match, but I think it sounds best for Whimbrel. I don’t think this is Sora, 
because your recording sounds “beefier” than I’d expect for Sora. Also, the 
only Sora calls I’ve recorded have been the “ker-wee” calls, no whinnies. Have 
you tried searching Xeno-Canto for other Whimbrel examples that might be a 
better match?

Am I off on this one? Other thoughts?

Sincerely,
Chris T-H


On May 8, 2015, at 5:53 PM, Geoff Malosh 
mailto:pomar...@earthlink.net>> wrote:

Chris and all,

Yes, at least one other person out here has a microphone turned on. In fact 
during the overnight hours of May 4 here in suburban Pittsburgh I picked up a 
call that appears to be a Sora “whinnying” as it passed overhead. The recording 
is attached, because there are a few things I am unsure about it and would 
certainly appreciate any opinions. First, the call is somewhat strange because 
it is more or less all on one pitch, rather than rapidly rising in pitch and 
gradually descending like a typical Sora whinny call. I was also curious to 
know whether Soras are known to whinny while on nocturnal migration. I assume 
there is no reason why they couldn’t, but wasn’t sure if it’s more typical for 
them to give a different call while on passage.

I discussed with a few others and the only other possibility we came up with is 
a very early Whimbrel, but this seems unlikely by the messy start to the call 
sequence (which is more like Sora) and the fact that, to my ear at least, the 
“voice” of each note isn’t quite right for Whimbrel, but does match Sora well 
enough, including on the spectrogram.

Anyway, any input on whether this could be something other than a Sora would be 
appreciated.


Thanks very much,
Geoff Malosh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


Geoff Malosh | Editor, Pennsylvania Birds
450 Amherst Avenue | Moon Township, PA 15108-2654 | 412.735.3128
pomar...@earthlink.net | 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffmalosh/
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From: 
bounce-119145394-58130...@list.cornell.edu
 [mailto:bounce-119145394-58130...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Christopher 
T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2015 10:31 AM
To: NFC-L
Subject: [nfc-l] Etna, NY: Night Migration 7-8 May 2015

Good morning!

I finally set up my personal flowerpot microphone on the roof in Etna, NY, 
yesterday evening, and then conducted my first overnight recording of the 
spring.

In general, it was fairly uneventful and quiet, with the exception of the 
Spring Peeper chorus, periodic trilling American Toads, and occasional calling 
Gray Treefrog.

In the Fingerlakes area of Upstate, NY, we are seeing a nearly unprecedented 
early leaf-out, or at least a leaf-out we haven’t seen this early in probably 
over a decade. This will make for interesting and sometimes challenging daytime 
birding, because so many more food resources are available as the bulk of 
migrants move through our region.

OK, onto the night recording. Early this morning, I quickly scanned through the 
recording from last night with the following notables, in no particular order:

Ovenbird (2 NFCs, 1 song)
White Throated Sparrow (5+ NFCs)
HF Sparrow seet (1 NFC)
Indigo Bunting (2 NFCs, 1 song, one of the NFC’s was a really nice clear call)
Wood Thrush (2 NFCs, 1 song - definite singer in flight, not from ground, which 
I think is a first for me as a singing flyover)
Common Yellowthroats (5 NFCs, 3 songs)
Chipping Sparrow (10+ NFCs, 7 songs - local bird triggered into song by flyover 
NFCs)
Least Sandpiper (1 “krt” series of calls)
Spotted Sandpiper (3-4 call sequences, possible local bird)
Virginia Rail (1 “k-kreeer" call)
Green Heron (4 “keow!” calls)
Baltimore Oriole (1 in-flight song)
Tree Swallow (dawn flight calls)
Canada Warbler (1 NFC)
Savannah Sparrow (4 NFCs)
Warbler sp (8 NFCs)
Song Sparrows (5+ songs, probably local birds)

It’s good to be listening and recording at night again!

Has anyone else out there been motivated to start recording or listening. What 
are you hearing?

Sincerely,
Chris T-H

--
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp

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NFC-L List Info:
Welcome and 

Re: [nfc-l] Etna, NY: Night Migration 7-8 May 2015

[Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes]

Hey Rob,

Yes, reviewing is the big challenge, especially if you get behind by a few 
days. I like hand browsing, and just looking for interesting stuff. If there is 
a good night of interest, I’ll try to log all calls. Of course, my main 
interest has been in Black-billed Cuckoos for the past few years. Neat 
mysterious birds. When you do focus on a single bird or on out-of-the-ordinary 
and other interesting calls, hand browsing can go quickly; but, it’s easy to 
get bogged down.

Keep it up and thanks for sharing mystery clips in the Facebook NFC group. Feel 
free to cross-post here, too! :-)

Sincerely,
Chris T-H


On May 8, 2015, at 9:51 PM, Rob Fergus 
mailto:birdcha...@hotmail.com>> wrote:

I’ve been recording almost every night all year, but have not been reviewing 
recordings until recently.  May 4-5 was good and the last night I’ve reviewed.  
I’ve got a good handful of birds I have no idea about—including a rail or tern 
type of call that I haven’t pinned down yet, that I posted on the NFC Facebook 
group.

I need to get into a groove of reviewing my recordings—it just takes a long 
time to go through a full night manually on my Mac.

Rob Fergus
Hunterdon County, NJ
birdcha...@hotmail.com
www.backyardbigyear.com
www.facebook.com/backyardbigyear








On May 8, 2015, at 10:30 AM, Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes 
mailto:c...@cornell.edu>> wrote:

Good morning!

I finally set up my personal flowerpot microphone on the roof in Etna, NY, 
yesterday evening, and then conducted my first overnight recording of the 
spring.

In general, it was fairly uneventful and quiet, with the exception of the 
Spring Peeper chorus, periodic trilling American Toads, and occasional calling 
Gray Treefrog.

In the Fingerlakes area of Upstate, NY, we are seeing a nearly unprecedented 
early leaf-out, or at least a leaf-out we haven’t seen this early in probably 
over a decade. This will make for interesting and sometimes challenging daytime 
birding, because so many more food resources are available as the bulk of 
migrants move through our region.

OK, onto the night recording. Early this morning, I quickly scanned through the 
recording from last night with the following notables, in no particular order:

Ovenbird (2 NFCs, 1 song)
White Throated Sparrow (5+ NFCs)
HF Sparrow seet (1 NFC)
Indigo Bunting (2 NFCs, 1 song, one of the NFC’s was a really nice clear call)
Wood Thrush (2 NFCs, 1 song - definite singer in flight, not from ground, which 
I think is a first for me as a singing flyover)
Common Yellowthroats (5 NFCs, 3 songs)
Chipping Sparrow (10+ NFCs, 7 songs - local bird triggered into song by flyover 
NFCs)
Least Sandpiper (1 “krt” series of calls)
Spotted Sandpiper (3-4 call sequences, possible local bird)
Virginia Rail (1 “k-kreeer" call)
Green Heron (4 “keow!” calls)
Baltimore Oriole (1 in-flight song)
Tree Swallow (dawn flight calls)
Canada Warbler (1 NFC)
Savannah Sparrow (4 NFCs)
Warbler sp (8 NFCs)
Song Sparrows (5+ songs, probably local birds)

It’s good to be listening and recording at night again!

Has anyone else out there been motivated to start recording or listening. What 
are you hearing?

Sincerely,
Chris T-H

--
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp

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Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 
607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp


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