Rudy Keller Boyertown, PABerks County
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Sitting on my deck in eastern Berks Co. from 5:00-6:10 a.m. 9/3/09, I heard
the heaviest flight so far this fall, about 700 calls, mostly in the latter
half of the listening period. We're four days out from Sunday's autumnal
cold front and winds were almost dead calm, later northeasterly, and a thin
cloud layer veiled the duller stars. There were lots of unidentified calls,
but predominant were calls of Wood Thrush and Veery, with a crowd of maybe
200 calls of the latter during the last 15 minutes as birds descended. This
was only the second day for Swainson's Thrush calls here (no more than 25)
and the first day for Hermit (two) and Gray-cheeked (one classic arched
queeah call directly overhead, my earliest record here). It was one of those
mornings when I could see silhouettes descend, and Wood Thrushes were highly
vocal for about 15 minutes after descent, calling from trees all around, and
Veeries less so, which is typical. Then with increasing light they all
disappeared in the understory and I heard nothing more from them.
