Hello Magnus, I was most surprised to read that nobody you¹ve asked has ever heard Fieldfare at night!? But I¹d be interested to know if you¹ve asked any Irish birders? As a young birder growing up in the suburbs of Dublin Ireland during the late seventies and eighties, I¹m sure we¹d occasionally hear Fieldfares on migration at night, particularly when it was clear that there was also a good push of Redwings taking place. It wasn¹t common to hear them- not as you would Blackbirds, Song Thrushes or Redwings. And you wouldn¹t necessarily hear Fieldfares during good Redwing flights either. It was a long time ago, and my memory might have me thinking that it happened more frequently than it actually did. But I believe it was most definitely AT NIGHT, that is, at least two or more hours after dark, and on a good night with northeast winds you could hear a least two or three birds at least. (Please keep in mind that I was not purposely ³monitoring² migration- frequency and/or time of night and certainly not listening throughout the night). My main point here is that it was taken for granted that you could/would hear Fieldfares at night? I¹m sure I recall other birders commenting that they had heard them. Am I totally mistaken somehow? As I remember, the call was a short dry ³chack² I think, which might have been repeated somehow like ³chack-chack-chack² or such, I honestly can¹t remember exactly, but it was pretty distinctive. I¹m tempted to think whether the birds might have called arriving over the lighted streets having just crossed the Irish Sea? But the UK is littered with coastal cities not just the Republic of Ireland, so I¹m genuinely surprised and a bit bewildered?
My house was about a 15 minute walk from the north Bull Island in Dublin Bay. I could sometimes hear shorebirds in bed at night, mostly Redshanks and Curlew but also the occasional Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Greenshank and one or two Green Sandpiper over the years I think, and flocks of Brant and the odd Wigeon- but it¹s all late seventies and the eighties I¹m thinking of. Nobody I knew kept notes on night migration. BTW, I very much enjoy your Petrels book! Cheers, Gerard Phillips Ontario, Canada On 9/28/09 4:47 PM, "Magnus Robb" <[email protected]> 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 >> <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] >> >> 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/[email protected]/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/ --
