Hello, Birders. There was a strong nocturnal passage of landbirds over Greenlee Preserve, Boulder County, earlier today, Tuesday, April 25th. I heard flight calls at 250+ per hour. During 20 minutes of listening, starting at 4:45, I was able to scribble down the following: 1 Upland Sandpiper 1 presumed Orange-crowned Warbler 2 Yellow Warblers 33 Wilson's Warblers 1 presumed Western Tanager 10 Chipping Sparrows 24 presumed Brewer's Sparrows 5 presumed Vesper Sparrows 2 Lark Sparrows 9 presumed Black-headed Grosbeaks Note the various, ah, presumptions. Even some of the distinct-sounding calls, e.g., those given by presumed Western Tanagers and Black-headed Grosbeaks, are hard to ascribe with near-certainty to one species or another. I'm still trying to figure out Townsend's and especially MacGillivray's Warblers. (Could I be confusing MacGillivray's Warbler with Vesper Sparrow?) And what about Clay-colored Sparrow?--am I missing some of those. Anyhow, it was mostly cloudy with winds out of the north-northeast. Around 6am, there was a very heavy dawn flight and fallout over Lafayette, as I was hearing flight calls at 20-30 per minute (1,200-1,800 per hour) for close to 10 minutes. By the way, there is something special about Aug. 25th in Boulder County! The best night of the season in 2006 was Aug. 25th, pre-dawn; the best night of the season in 2007 was also Aug. 25th, pre-dawn; and the best night of the season thus far in 2009 has been Aug. 25th pre-dawn. (In 2008, I was in Bolivia on Aug. 25th, observing the austral migrations of Chaco Suiriri, White-crested Elaenia, Rufous Casiornis, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, and White-browed Blackbird.) Finally, Upland Sandpiper. A few of you have asked me what these sound like. Go to his website: http://macaulaylibrary.org/index.do. Then, under the huge FIND field, type in the digits 50267. Then press the "play" button (little arrow facing right). Recording #50267 is typical for the Upland Sandpipers that I hear over Colorado, but be aware of the existence of variants. For example, check out #11536 (recorded in Suriname in November), #126945 (recorded in Bolivia in September), and others, all at the Macaulay Library website. You may find yourself turning down the volume on your computer! The Upland Sandpiper's flight call is not exactly soft. If you "need" to hear one for yourself in one of the Front Range counties, I recommend going out at night in August (hurry, time's a-wastin') when there's a light northeast wind with some cloud cover. ------------------------------- Ted Floyd tedfloy...@hotmail.com Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding ------------------------------- Please support the American Birding Association: Click on http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the internet. Check out the American Birding Association on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22934255714 Check out the American Birding Association on Twitter: http://twitter.com/abaoutreach Please visit the website of the American Birding Association: http://www.aba.org _________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackToSchool_Cashback_BTSCashback_1x1 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/
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