Michael and others,
After my last email to the group Magnus Robb inquired
about the Spotted Flycatcher (Musstr) I mentioned, so I sent out an inquiry to
the Finnish birdnet about what migrants birders had heard. Among others Spotted
was "confirmed" although undocumented by recordings - hope that this will be
done soon. A couple of other interesting records came into moonlight. One such
is that when Tengmalm's Owls (Aegfun) are on the move they stay in contact at
night by calling - you can hear a flock moving by on a wide front. It was not
confirmed whether they do this calling during flight of if they sit down to
make these autumnal contact calls.
Now getting to the main point about Rails. I got a note from Mr. Janne Aalto,
who lives in Parikkala just next to the Russian border close to a good Rail
site Siikalahti. He told me that he had heard three rail species in flight:
Water Rail (Ralaqu), Spotted Crake (Porpor) and a Corncrake (Crecre). He was a
bit cautious in calling these night migration calls, but he told that the birds
were all definitely flying and wondered whether they started their display
calls ("songs") when they felt that they were approaching a familiar display
site. The Corncrake was apparently further up in the sky. I have personally
heard coots (Fulatr) and moorhens (Galchl) call during full migration.
These sounds quite similar to your yellow rail observation.
regards
Harry
hle...@utu.fi
Finland
-------------------------------------------------
Harry J Lehto, Ph.D., Adj. Prof.
Tuorla Observatory
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Turku
Väisäläntie 20
FI-21500 Piikkiö
FINLAND
hlehto(a...@sign)utu.fi
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