All, In relation to this question, there is an exciting new paper in the journal Biology Letters about the height of nocturnal migrants: "Where in the air? Aerial habitat use of nocturnally migrating birds" by Kyle Horton and colleagues. The article reports a lot of variation in flight height of nocturnal migrants. In relation to inland versus coastal habitat, the authors report: "migrants tended to fly slightly higher at inland sites compared with coastal sites during spring, but not during autumn."
Here is the full abstract. *The lower atmosphere (i.e. aerosphere) is critical habitat for migrant birds. This habitat is vast and little is known about the spatio-temporal patterns of distribution and abundance of migrants in it. Increased human encroachment into the aerosphere makes understanding where and when migratory birds use this airspace a key to reducing human–wildlife conflicts. We use weather surveillance radar to describe large-scale height distributions of nocturnally migrating birds and interpret these distributions as aggregate habitat selection behaviours of individual birds. As such, we detail wind cues that influence selection of flight heights. Using six radars in the eastern USA during the spring (2013–2015) and autumn (2013 and 2014), we found migrants tended to adjust their heights according to favourable wind profit. We found that migrants’ flight altitudes correlated most closely with the altitude of maximum wind profit; however, absolute differences in flight heights and height of maximum wind profit were large. Migrants tended to fly slightly higher at inland sites compared with coastal sites during spring, but not during autumn. Migration activity was greater at coastal sites during autumn, but not during spring. This characterization of bird migration represents a critical advance in our understanding of migrant distributions in flight and a new window into habitat selection behaviours.* Dan Dan Mennill Associate Professor Chair, Biology Graduate Program Department of Biological Sciences University of Windsor Email: dmenn...@uwindsor.ca Web: www.uwindsor.ca/dmennill On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Debbie Leick <dle...@mpgranch.com> wrote: > > > Yes, makes me wonder, too. Do you have any sense of this from the > monitoring you've done? > > ---------------- > From: John Kearney > Sent: 12/2/2016 1:21 PM > To: 'Debbie Leick'; nfc-l@cornell.edu > Cc: 'Kate Stone'; 'Carrie Voss' > Subject: RE: [nfc-l] 2016 Fall NFC Update > > Hi Debbie, > > Very interesting work. Low elevation in your area would be very high in a > coastal area. It makes me wonder how the preferred flight altitude of a > migrant is related to sea-level and local geography. > > John > > > > Carleton, NS > > > > From: bounce-121048772-28417...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-121048772- > 28417...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Debbie Leick > Sent: December-01-16 22:44 > To: nfc-l@cornell.edu > Cc: Kate Stone <kst...@mpgranch.com>; Carrie Voss <cv...@mpgranch.com> > Subject: [nfc-l] 2016 Fall NFC Update > > > > Hi NFCers, > > We posted a short update with preliminary results from our fall NFC > monitoring. If you are interested in learning more about what we found in > western Montana, please follow the link below: > > http://www.mpgranch.com/research/latest-research/fall- > migration-2016-acoustic-monitoring-update.aspx > > Regards, > > Debbie Leick > > MPG Ranch > > Florence, MT > > -- > > NFC-L List Info: > > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Welcome and Basics > > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Rules and Information > > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > > Archives: > > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> The Mail > Archive > > <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> Surfbirds > > <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> BirdingOnThe.Net > > Please submit your observations to eBird <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> > ! > > -- > > > -- > > NFC-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > > -- > > NFC-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
