Personally I agree with you Ted. Cobirders is such a big help to novices and intermediate experience birders (like me). Even just the excitement of knowing that a new birding experience is possible is worth the posting. I'm sure everyone has had the experience of not having seen a fairly common bird, and actually being embarrassed about it. That was my situation with the Sandhill Crane, until yesterday! I was lounging in my back yard at about 6pm when I heard a sound that was foreign to me. At first I doubted it was a bird. But then I saw the flock right over my house. I raced for my binos thinking maybe it was just a sound I had not heard from Canada Geese. But then was thrilled to notice the different shape and realize that FINALLY I had seen Sandhill Cranes! In this case I had not been looking at the posts recently so I was not on the alert for them, but it could have played out otherwise. And there was something cool about seeing the other postings today (beyond the relief of validation).
Ron Bolton Berthoud On Sep 28, 6:58 am, Ted Floyd <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, Birders. > > Hannah and I heard and saw 394 Sandhill Cranes migrating high over Greenlee > Preserve, Boulder County, early yesterday evening, Sept. 27th. > > By the way, Nick Komar said: > > > I wish to simply remind the listserve participants that these > > flights are normal and that we probably do not need to receive > > an email about each flock or sighting, now that the flights have > > begun (perhaps others have a different view on this point). > > I have a different point of view. > > It is my point of view that spectacular avian phenomena are interesting and > worthy of discussion. Even if we accept that Sandhill Crane flights through > the Front Range urban corridor are somehow "normal" (but see below), it is > fascinating that they tend to occur within extremely narrow temporal windows, > sometimes involving detections of thousands of birds (and who knows how many > were missed?) within a span of just a few hours. The last time this > phenomenon was reported to COBirds was on a late-September afternoon/evening > in 2006. Major Sandhill Crane flights over the Front Range cities are, in > fact, less commonly reported to COBirds than are occurrences of, say, > Laughing Gulls in eastern Colorado. > > I can't imagine anything more thrilling than being in one of our Front Range > cities on a sunny September evening, doing yardwork or something, and then > hearing and seeing hundreds of Sandhill Cranes migrating over. It's even more > thrilling to know that what you have just seen is part of a broader > phenomenon, being detected, being reported, and being marveled at by > like-minded folks elsewhere in the region. And, again, these flights just > aren't "normal." They occur rarely. I see more Glossy Ibises and Magnolia > Warblers annually in the Front Range region than I see large flocks (250+ > individuals) of Sandhill Cranes migrating south over the Front Range region. > > Bring on the reports of Sandhills! It's good stuff, good data. Submit your > observations to eBird. Post to COBirds. This is as good as it gets: > spectacular, short-duration flights of thousands of birds in observable > active migration right over a major urban center. The phenomenon is eminently > worthy of further study, formal documentation, and, most of all, enthusiastic > sharing here on COBirds. > > ------------------------------- > > Ted Floyd > [email protected] > Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado > > ------------------------------- > > Ted Floyd > Editor, Birding > > ------------------------------- > > Please support the American Birding Association: Click > onhttp://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482to 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 > _________________________________________________________________ > Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. Try Bing™ > nowhttp://www.bing.com?form=MFEHPG&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MFEHPG_Core_ta...bing_1x1 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
