Hi all, Thanks for the feedback from all of you that responded on the list and privately! Some of you were wondering when specifically I listened, well, last night between 2- 2:30am and then again 5-6am, however I think it was too breezy here and I did not hear anything at all. But the night before when there was some calling activity I listened some at about 3am and then heard mostly shorebirds plus some unknown spp. I then listened between about 5:30 and and 6:30 am, it was still dark out, have not civil twilight was 6:50. I heard most of the calling in this period. Some calls were either Song or Mistle Thrush not sure which, I am wondering now if they really move nocturnally much at all though. From my observations of both species the last several days, in habit they seem very similar to our American Robin, which will sometimes move pre-dawn, most of the time they move early am though and will vocalize heavily sometimes in the hour before sunrise. The vocalizations I heard were similar to song/mistle flight notes I heard while observing these spp. here the last several mornings. The Willow Warbler ID was purely a guess, but it sounded virtually identical to the call I heard in the field that day and was fairly close overhead. A single rising "tuwee", but as I found out today Chiffchaff have a similar call to this too which they do give in flight. I was also curious about this as I had heard sylvids did not call at all at night, and it could be that the call I heard was from some other species all together that I am not familiar with. Much to learn for sure, that is why I am so excited to be here and have the opportunity to listen a bit while I am here! I did not get any recordings yet as I failed to bring the right UK converter for my computer, but I got one today! I will be traveling to Scotland tomorrow for about 5 days before working my way over to the Swiss/Italian alps to do some recording in mountain passes there, should be interesting! I will let all of you know what I find/record. I would be interested to hear more from others with there observation over here too!
On a side note, I noticed over here there seems not to be very good radar coverage. It could just be that I am not finding the right sites though, but I was looking for just simple reflectivity to gauge migration intensity vs what I was hearing. Is there doppler radar in Europe? Talk to you all soon, Mike Michael Lanzone Biotechnology and Biomonitoring Lab Supervisor Carnegie Museum of Natural History Powdermill Avian Research Center 1847 Route 381 Rector, PA 15677 724.593.5521 Office mlanz...@gmail.com On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Magnus Robb <magnus.r...@xs4all.nl> wrote: > Hi Mike, > At this time of year in much of the UK, Song Thrushes should still be the > dominant thrush, but Blackbirds and Redwings will be starting to join > them. With a lot of luck you might hear a Ring Ouzel, but this is not a > common thrush. Oddly enough, Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare don't seem to call > much at night. Nobody I've asked has ever head more than the odd call at > dusk or dawn, even at times when many were moving through. Has anyone in > this group heard them at night? > > As for other passerines, relatively few European ones seem to use flight > calls at night, which partly explains the relative lack of interest in night > flight calls over here. Most of what you hear comes from the three species > of thrush I mentioned first. Among the passerines I've definitely heard > flying over at night are: Skylark, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Snow Bunting and > Ortolan. A Willow Warbler at night sounds unlikely, as none of our warblers > call much in flight (except Cisticolas). Did you get a recording? > > I live in Portugal where there are huge numbers of Pied Flycatchers passing > through just now. I've been out several nights trying to find out whether > they have nocturnal flight calls, but so far without any conclusive results. > What I have learned however is that I am hearing a few passerine flight > calls that I can't yet identify. I have a good knowledge of the calls of > most western European species by day, so perhaps some are using different > calls at night that I've simply never heard. In short, lots to learn for us > Europeans too! > > Besides passerines, you are of course likely to hear lots of shorebirds, > and geese as the autumn progresses. Which species you hear will depend very > much on where you are. > > Feel free to send me some of your UFO recordings. I'm keen to puzzle > and learn about what else is flying over at night... > > cheers, > > Magnus Robb > > > On 27 Sep 2009, at 22:1501, Michael Lanzone wrote: > > Hi all, > > Last night I heard my first flight calling overseas. Currently I am in > Chester, England and had a decent number of migrants this morning. Not sure > what to expect for numbers here, but I was hearing 8-10 thrushes per minute > during the peak, typically less though. I am guessing Song/mistle Thrush, > also had what sounded like Willow Warbler, many unknown. Will need to learn > more night flight calls here! Had a number of shorebirds pass over as well, > greenshank, lapwing, redshank, green sandpiper?, golden plover, etc. Looking > forwrd to the next several weeks in Europe! Any advice from any of you as to > what you are hearing this time of year? I will be mostly in UK for the next > week, then spending most the rest of my time in France, Germany, > Switzerland, Italy. I also hope to spend some time in the alps listening to > nocturnal migration, possibly col de bretolet. Anyway, be interestd in what > to expect and some sample calls if any of you have them to share! I am doing > some recording so will hopefully have something good to share as well. > > Talk to you all soon, > Mike > > Michael Lanzone > Biotechnology and Biomonitoring Lab Supervisor > Carnegie Museum of Natural History > Powdermill Avian Research Center > 1847 Route 381 > Rector, PA 15677 > 724.593.5521 Office > <mlanz...@gmail.com>mlanz...@gmail.com > > Sent from my iPhone > > > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
