RE: [nfc-l] rails calling during migration

[Jeff Wells]

Check out amazing migration tonight in eastern NA if you are awake and get this 
note:
 
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/index.php
 
Pretty good nfc rate tonight of 5-10 per minute just listening not recording or 
running detectors because of huge cricket population.
 
Jeff Wells
Gardiner, Maine

--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
--

[nfc-l] San Diego, CA Moonwatching, 8:00 - 9:00 Pacific

[Jay K]

San Diego, CA Moonwatching Results:

8:00 - 8:05: 3 birds
8:15 - 8:20: 1 bird (Lesser Nighthawk)
8:30 - 8:35: 0 birds
8:45 - 8:50: 2 birds

Not a high count, but birds!  I guess that extrapolates to roughly 18 
moon-front birds per hour.  The other noted birds were another moonlit silent 
Lesser Nighthawk, a Swainson's Thrush (migrants start 8/26), and the resident 
Barn Owl.

Jupiter and a few of its moons were entertaining on the off-periods.

Jay Keller

--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
--

Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

[Chris Tessaglia-Hymes]

Wow! 1400 moon-watching participants in 1952! Yeah, we've got a ways to 
go to match that number. The NFC-L list is now at 230 actively 
subscribed email addresses, and climbing. NFC-L has been a wonderful 
outlet for great night flight call discussions and idea sharing; and 
this is only about 5 months into the life of the list!

Keep it up everyone!

Good night listening and moon-watching!

Sincerely,
Chris T-H

David La Puma wrote:
> Since we're on the topic of moonwatching, I thought I'd send a link to 
> the Lowery and Newman paper that Andrew mentioned a few weeks ago.
> Here's a direct link to the paper:
> http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v083n04/p0547-p0586.pdf
>
> and here you can search the ornithological literature for more papers 
> that might be of interest:
> http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/search.php
>
> You could search for George Lowery (in the Author box) and Migration 
> (in the keyword box) and find the above paper, plus a few others.
>
> Note that nearly 1400 bird students and astronomers participated in 
> the study by moon-watching over four nights in October of 1952!! Hey 
> Chris, what's the NFC list membership up to? We may need to do a 
> little recruiting- but I bet we could round up enough folks to make a 
> go of it!
>
> Good Birding and Reading
>
> David
> 
> David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
> Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources
>
> Online Teaching Portfolio:
> http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching
>
> Lockwood lab:  
> http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo 
>
> Websites:
> http://www.woodcreeper.com
> http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com
>
> Photos:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Farnsworth 
> mailto:andrew.farnswo...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> FYI - I think there was a 1950 paper too, though I cannot
> remember. . .When everyone is ready, it is high time that we
> replicate Lowery and Newman (1966).  With today's technology for
> synthesizing information, we could do it in a much more timely and
> large scale manner, AND we could combine it with FC and radar data
> in a way not possible in the 60s. . .
>
> Best,
> Andrew
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 07:20, Ted Floyd  > wrote:
>
> Hi, all.
>
> I was recently contacted by somebody who's preparing an
> obituary for
> William A. Rense, a leading solar physicist of the 20th
> century. Here's
> one of his publications:
>
> Rense, W.A. 1946. Astronomy and ornithology. Popular Astronomy
> 54(2):55-73.
>
> The article presents all the calculations necessary for
> "moonwatching,"
> that is, for determining the number of birds on nocturnal
> migration
> within a given volume of sky. And, interestingly, this article
> precedes
> by several month's George Lowery's famous 1946 paper on the
> same topic
> (Auk 63:175-211). Lowery and Rense were colleagues, actually,
> so this
> isn't a disputed-priority thing. But it's interesting how we
> remember
> the famous Lowery paper, not the original Rense article. (Even
> though
> Rense's appeared in a relatively high-profile venue. Auk...
> Popular
> Astronomy... Please.) In a sense, this is also a tribute to
> Lowery's
> commendable interdisciplinary outlook on science and nature.
>
> What's also cool about the Rense article is that it reminds us
> that all
> of this had basically been worked out 40+ years earlier, during a
> brief--and virtually completely forgotten--"golden age" of
> research on
> nocturnal migration. Moonwatching techniques are well described in
> papers published in 1902 (Bull. Wisc. Nat. Hist. Soc.), 1906
> (Popular
> Astronomy), and again in 1906 (Auk).
>
> (During that brief period of serious professional interest in
> the topic,
> there is an intriguing paper--by one Henry H. Kopman--on,
> among other
> things, the flight calls of wood-warblers. Farnsworth in a
> previous
> life...)
>
> Anyhow, I thought some folks would be interested. I'll let
> y'all know
> when the Rense obit. is published.
>
> Best,
> Ted
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
>
> Ted Floyd
> Editor, Birding
>
> ---
>
> Please support the American Birding Association: Click on
> http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the
> internet.
>
> Check out the American Birding Association on FaceBook:
> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22934255714
>
> Check out the American Birding Association on 

Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

[David La Puma]

Since we're on the topic of moonwatching, I thought I'd send a link to the
Lowery and Newman paper that Andrew mentioned a few weeks ago.
Here's a direct link to the paper:
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v083n04/p0547-p0586.pdf

and here you can search the ornithological literature for more papers that
might be of interest:
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/search.php

You could search for George Lowery (in the Author box) and Migration (in the
keyword box) and find the above paper, plus a few others.

Note that nearly 1400 bird students and astronomers participated in the
study by moon-watching over four nights in October of 1952!! Hey Chris,
what's the NFC list membership up to? We may need to do a little recruiting-
but I bet we could round up enough folks to make a go of it!

Good Birding and Reading

David

David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources

Online Teaching Portfolio:
http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching

Lockwood lab:
http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo

Websites:
http://www.woodcreeper.com
http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper






On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Farnsworth <
andrew.farnswo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> FYI - I think there was a 1950 paper too, though I cannot remember. . .When
> everyone is ready, it is high time that we replicate Lowery and Newman
> (1966).  With today's technology for synthesizing information, we could do
> it in a much more timely and large scale manner, AND we could combine it
> with FC and radar data in a way not possible in the 60s. . .
>
> Best,
> Andrew
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 07:20, Ted Floyd  wrote:
>
>> Hi, all.
>>
>> I was recently contacted by somebody who's preparing an obituary for
>> William A. Rense, a leading solar physicist of the 20th century. Here's
>> one of his publications:
>>
>> Rense, W.A. 1946. Astronomy and ornithology. Popular Astronomy
>> 54(2):55-73.
>>
>> The article presents all the calculations necessary for "moonwatching,"
>> that is, for determining the number of birds on nocturnal migration
>> within a given volume of sky. And, interestingly, this article precedes
>> by several month's George Lowery's famous 1946 paper on the same topic
>> (Auk 63:175-211). Lowery and Rense were colleagues, actually, so this
>> isn't a disputed-priority thing. But it's interesting how we remember
>> the famous Lowery paper, not the original Rense article. (Even though
>> Rense's appeared in a relatively high-profile venue. Auk... Popular
>> Astronomy... Please.) In a sense, this is also a tribute to Lowery's
>> commendable interdisciplinary outlook on science and nature.
>>
>> What's also cool about the Rense article is that it reminds us that all
>> of this had basically been worked out 40+ years earlier, during a
>> brief--and virtually completely forgotten--"golden age" of research on
>> nocturnal migration. Moonwatching techniques are well described in
>> papers published in 1902 (Bull. Wisc. Nat. Hist. Soc.), 1906 (Popular
>> Astronomy), and again in 1906 (Auk).
>>
>> (During that brief period of serious professional interest in the topic,
>> there is an intriguing paper--by one Henry H. Kopman--on, among other
>> things, the flight calls of wood-warblers. Farnsworth in a previous
>> life...)
>>
>> Anyhow, I thought some folks would be interested. I'll let y'all know
>> when the Rense obit. is published.
>>
>> Best,
>> Ted
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Ted Floyd
>> Editor, Birding
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Please support the American Birding Association: Click on
>> http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the internet.
>>
>> Check out the American Birding Association on FaceBook:
>> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22934255714
>>
>> Check out the American Birding Association on Twitter:
>> http://twitter.com/abaoutreach
>>
>> Please visit the website of the American Birding Association:
>> http://www.aba.org
>>
>> --
>> NFC-L List Info:
>> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
>> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES
>> --
>>
>
>

--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
--

Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

[Michael Lanzone]

Thanks for bringing that up Jay, no need to try to ID for this. By the  
way, might be easier to break up the 5 minutes into 2 2.5 minute  
periods so you can take a blink break!


Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 2, 2009, at 9:03 PM, Jay K  wrote:


Michael,

I assume this is just a count of birds and not specific species?  I  
never just watched the moon but I figure it is nearly impossible to  
determine species unless they happen to call?  I may try here in San  
Diego this evening, but our migration events are frustratingly  
minimal coastally.


I did take in a nice migration at Liberty State Park, near Jersey  
City NJ yesterday morning - Veery, Swainson's, Cape May Warbler,  
BTGs, Wilson's, Ovenbird, etc.  I miss those flights from the east...


Jay Keller

-Original Message-

From: Michael Lanzone 
Sent: Sep 2, 2009 8:57 PM
To: nfc-l@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

Hi all,

A number of you have indicated that you would like to participate  
so I am

just sending some very brief instructions for anyone that wants to
participate. I am thinking that if possible between 10-11 and 11-12  
we could
watch at least 2 times during the hour for 5 minutes. Only could  
bird that
actually go through the lighted part of the moon, but you can note  
others
that you see in your field of view. I will be doing this 4 times  
per hour 5
minutes each time, starting at 9:00 pm. If you can only do this  
once for 10
minutes that will be ok too. This is fairly informal now, hopefully  
in the
future it can become more. You should record the time(s) you begin  
and end,
your location- closest town or lat/long, # birds that pass the moon  
(and
bats too if you see any), other observations, and optics used. Send  
me your
results and I will post to the list once I compile. Possibly in  
October we

can get more people to join in!

Best,
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 Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 7:30 PM, Michael Lanzone  
 wrote:



Hi all,

Tonight is supposed to be clear across much of the east and also a  
full
moon, so was wondering if anyone was interested in trying to  
coordinate some
kind of formal moon watch tonight. I was thinking for starters to  
get this
off the ground possibly we could pick an hour or two tonight were  
we watch
for 5 minute intervals 4 times an hour?? Anyone have any ideas on  
this or
interested in trying to get something going? Hopefully for October  
we can

have something a bit more formal, but I thought it would be a good
opportunity to get this started, anyone game??

Best,
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 Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 3:20 AM, David La Puma >wrote:


I just wanted to pop my head in and say "thanks" to those who put  
this
list together (Chris? Andrew?). I'm stoked to be a part of it  
now. I'd love
the opportunity to work on a project combining moon watching with  
radar and

flight calls. As Mike said, "Let's do it!"

in the meantime, I'll be posting nightly radar and migration
interpretations for NYC and NJ on www.woodcreeper.com , so come  
check it

out and contribute your FC observations to the discussion.

Cheers

David

David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources

Online Teaching Portfolio:
http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching

Lockwood lab:
http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo 


Websites:
http://www.woodcreeper.com
http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper






On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Farnsworth <
andrew.farnswo...@gmail.com> wrote:

FYI - I think there was a 1950 paper too, though I cannot  
remember. .
.When everyone is ready, it is high time that we replicate  
Lowery and Newman
(1966).  With today's technology for synthesizing information,  
we could do
it in a much more timely and large scale manner, AND we could  
combine it

with FC and radar data in a way not possible in the 60s. . .

Best,
Andrew

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 07:20, Ted Floyd  wrote:


Hi, all.

I was recently contacted by somebody who's preparing an  
obituary for
William A. Rense, a leading solar physicist of the 20th  
century. Here's

one of his publications:

Rense, W.A. 1946. Astronomy and ornithology. Popular Astronomy
54(2):55-73.

The article presents all the calculations necessary for  
"moonwatching,"
that is, for determining the number of birds on nocturnal  
migration
within a given volume of sky. And, interestingly, this article  
precedes
by several month's George Lowery's famous 1946 paper on the  
same topic
(Auk 

Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

[Chase Schiefer]

I would be thrilled to participate in a moonwatch. An official
moonwatch date is a phenomenal idea, the pairing of eyes on the moon
with radar data should make interesting results... Count me in!


”Adventure is for the adventurous.
My face is set.
I go to make my destiny.
May many another youth be by me inspired to leave the snug safety of his
rut,
and follow fortune to other lands.” Everett Ruess

Chase Schiefer
Bachmans' Ivory
Hazlet, New Jersey


On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 4:30 PM, Michael Lanzone  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Tonight is supposed to be clear across much of the east and also a full
> moon, so was wondering if anyone was interested in trying to coordinate some
> kind of formal moon watch tonight. I was thinking for starters to get this
> off the ground possibly we could pick an hour or two tonight were we watch
> for 5 minute intervals 4 times an hour?? Anyone have any ideas on this or
> interested in trying to get something going? Hopefully for October we can
> have something a bit more formal, but I thought it would be a good
> opportunity to get this started, anyone game??
>
> Best,
> 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 Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 3:20 AM, David La Puma wrote:
>
>> I just wanted to pop my head in and say "thanks" to those who put this
>> list together (Chris? Andrew?). I'm stoked to be a part of it now. I'd love
>> the opportunity to work on a project combining moon watching with radar and
>> flight calls. As Mike said, "Let's do it!"
>>
>> in the meantime, I'll be posting nightly radar and migration
>> interpretations for NYC and NJ on www.woodcreeper.com , so come check it
>> out and contribute your FC observations to the discussion.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> David
>> 
>> David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
>> Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources
>>
>> Online Teaching Portfolio:
>> http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching
>>
>> Lockwood lab:
>> http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo
>>
>> Websites:
>> http://www.woodcreeper.com
>> http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com
>>
>> Photos:
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Farnsworth <
>> andrew.farnswo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> FYI - I think there was a 1950 paper too, though I cannot remember. .
>>> .When everyone is ready, it is high time that we replicate Lowery and Newman
>>> (1966).  With today's technology for synthesizing information, we could do
>>> it in a much more timely and large scale manner, AND we could combine it
>>> with FC and radar data in a way not possible in the 60s. . .
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Andrew
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 07:20, Ted Floyd  wrote:
>>>
 Hi, all.

 I was recently contacted by somebody who's preparing an obituary for
 William A. Rense, a leading solar physicist of the 20th century. Here's
 one of his publications:

 Rense, W.A. 1946. Astronomy and ornithology. Popular Astronomy
 54(2):55-73.

 The article presents all the calculations necessary for "moonwatching,"
 that is, for determining the number of birds on nocturnal migration
 within a given volume of sky. And, interestingly, this article precedes
 by several month's George Lowery's famous 1946 paper on the same topic
 (Auk 63:175-211). Lowery and Rense were colleagues, actually, so this
 isn't a disputed-priority thing. But it's interesting how we remember
 the famous Lowery paper, not the original Rense article. (Even though
 Rense's appeared in a relatively high-profile venue. Auk... Popular
 Astronomy... Please.) In a sense, this is also a tribute to Lowery's
 commendable interdisciplinary outlook on science and nature.

 What's also cool about the Rense article is that it reminds us that all
 of this had basically been worked out 40+ years earlier, during a
 brief--and virtually completely forgotten--"golden age" of research on
 nocturnal migration. Moonwatching techniques are well described in
 papers published in 1902 (Bull. Wisc. Nat. Hist. Soc.), 1906 (Popular
 Astronomy), and again in 1906 (Auk).

 (During that brief period of serious professional interest in the topic,
 there is an intriguing paper--by one Henry H. Kopman--on, among other
 things, the flight calls of wood-warblers. Farnsworth in a previous
 life...)

 Anyhow, I thought some folks would be interested. I'll let y'all know
 when the Rense obit. is published.

 Best,
 Ted






 ---

 Ted Floyd
 Editor, Birding

 ---

 Please support the American Birding Association: Click on
 

Re: [nfc-l] Interesting early papers on moonwatching

[Michael Lanzone]

Hi all,

Tonight is supposed to be clear across much of the east and also a full
moon, so was wondering if anyone was interested in trying to coordinate some
kind of formal moon watch tonight. I was thinking for starters to get this
off the ground possibly we could pick an hour or two tonight were we watch
for 5 minute intervals 4 times an hour?? Anyone have any ideas on this or
interested in trying to get something going? Hopefully for October we can
have something a bit more formal, but I thought it would be a good
opportunity to get this started, anyone game??

Best,
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 Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 3:20 AM, David La Puma wrote:

> I just wanted to pop my head in and say "thanks" to those who put this list
> together (Chris? Andrew?). I'm stoked to be a part of it now. I'd love the
> opportunity to work on a project combining moon watching with radar and
> flight calls. As Mike said, "Let's do it!"
>
> in the meantime, I'll be posting nightly radar and migration
> interpretations for NYC and NJ on www.woodcreeper.com , so come check it
> out and contribute your FC observations to the discussion.
>
> Cheers
>
> David
> 
> David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
> Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources
>
> Online Teaching Portfolio:
> http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching
>
> Lockwood lab:
> http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo 
>
> Websites:
> http://www.woodcreeper.com
> http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com
>
> Photos:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Farnsworth <
> andrew.farnswo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> FYI - I think there was a 1950 paper too, though I cannot remember. .
>> .When everyone is ready, it is high time that we replicate Lowery and Newman
>> (1966).  With today's technology for synthesizing information, we could do
>> it in a much more timely and large scale manner, AND we could combine it
>> with FC and radar data in a way not possible in the 60s. . .
>>
>> Best,
>> Andrew
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 07:20, Ted Floyd  wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, all.
>>>
>>> I was recently contacted by somebody who's preparing an obituary for
>>> William A. Rense, a leading solar physicist of the 20th century. Here's
>>> one of his publications:
>>>
>>> Rense, W.A. 1946. Astronomy and ornithology. Popular Astronomy
>>> 54(2):55-73.
>>>
>>> The article presents all the calculations necessary for "moonwatching,"
>>> that is, for determining the number of birds on nocturnal migration
>>> within a given volume of sky. And, interestingly, this article precedes
>>> by several month's George Lowery's famous 1946 paper on the same topic
>>> (Auk 63:175-211). Lowery and Rense were colleagues, actually, so this
>>> isn't a disputed-priority thing. But it's interesting how we remember
>>> the famous Lowery paper, not the original Rense article. (Even though
>>> Rense's appeared in a relatively high-profile venue. Auk... Popular
>>> Astronomy... Please.) In a sense, this is also a tribute to Lowery's
>>> commendable interdisciplinary outlook on science and nature.
>>>
>>> What's also cool about the Rense article is that it reminds us that all
>>> of this had basically been worked out 40+ years earlier, during a
>>> brief--and virtually completely forgotten--"golden age" of research on
>>> nocturnal migration. Moonwatching techniques are well described in
>>> papers published in 1902 (Bull. Wisc. Nat. Hist. Soc.), 1906 (Popular
>>> Astronomy), and again in 1906 (Auk).
>>>
>>> (During that brief period of serious professional interest in the topic,
>>> there is an intriguing paper--by one Henry H. Kopman--on, among other
>>> things, the flight calls of wood-warblers. Farnsworth in a previous
>>> life...)
>>>
>>> Anyhow, I thought some folks would be interested. I'll let y'all know
>>> when the Rense obit. is published.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Ted
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>>
>>> Ted Floyd
>>> Editor, Birding
>>>
>>> ---
>>>
>>> Please support the American Birding Association: Click on
>>> http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the internet.
>>>
>>> Check out the American Birding Association on FaceBook:
>>> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22934255714
>>>
>>> Check out the American Birding Association on Twitter:
>>> http://twitter.com/abaoutreach
>>>
>>> Please visit the website of the American Birding Association:
>>> http://www.aba.org
>>>
>>> --
>>> NFC-L List Info:
>>> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
>>> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES
>>> --
>>>
>>
>>
>

--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

Re: [nfc-l] United States Radar Echoes - September 1, 2009

[David La Puma]

If you're in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic US, I post the nightly radar each
morning at ~6:40am on my website www.woodcreeper.com. If you're in the
Southeast, especially Florida, you can get similar information at
badbirdz2.wordpress.com, a site I started a few years ago and have passed on
to two very ambitious Miami birdwatchers, Angel and Mariel Abreu. I'm
working on ways to make the data presented on these sites more informative,
but at least for now they provide a database of radar loops for most nights
during both spring and fall migration (the database is searchable too!). In
many cases local birders have commented on the nightly posts, offering a
measure of ground-truthing to the data. In the future I hope to integrate
reporting tools which will make the data more quantifiable. For now, though,
it would be great if some of the NFC folks would stop by and participate in
the discussion, which would definitely add a new and welcome dimension to
our understanding of migration and migrant tracking.

Thanks to Jeff and Bryan for starting the conversation on radar.

Cheers

David

David A. La Puma, Ph.D.
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources

Online Teaching Portfolio:
http://www.woodcreeper.com/teaching

Lockwood lab:
http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo

Websites:
http://www.woodcreeper.com
http://badbirdz2.wordpress.com

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper






On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 11:53 PM, Bryan Guarente  wrote:

> NFC-enthusiasts,
> Jeff pointed out the radar echoes tonight which are pretty impressive,
> especially along the Carolina and Virginia coasts.  Being a meteorologist
> and a birdwatcher, this is of great interest to me.  For those who are
> interested in sources of information about the weather patterns aside from
> using the radar to detect objects, you can get some information on my
> personal website:
> http://homes.comet.ucar.edu/~guarente/birdweather/index.htm
> I have compiled the links I often use for my own meteorological exploration,
> as well as sites that would be useful specifically for bird migration.
>
> I personally am a fan of checking the forecast streamlines for bird
> migration as this is a good predictor of which nights will be good for
> migration, but does not necessarily dictate when there will be detectable
> NFCs, as other meteorological factors play in to this.  To see the
> streamlines you can go here:
> http://homes.comet.ucar.edu/~guarente/birdweather/stream.htm
> Streamlines show the direction weightless particles would travel if released
> in the wind field.
>
> All times on this page are plotted on the top of the images, but they are
> noted in UTC.  To see the current UTC time, you can go here:
> http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?UTC/s/0/java  Also, the maps differ in
> height from the surface through 700mb (or hPa).  These maps use pressure as
> the height coordinate, but can be roughly thought of as 900mb = .5km above
> sea-level, 850mb = 1.0km above sea-level, and 700mb = 1.5km above
> sea-level.  The "Surface" maps plotted here are the surface of the earth
> following topography.  Sorry to all those individuals outside of the US, I
> only have access to the US model data, so I cannot currently plot other
> locations aside from North America.
>
> Where the current streamlines have a component pointing toward the south
> the radar echoes are brightest, except for where there is significant
> topography to block the radar beam (the western 1/3 of the US).
>
> Back to the radar: I am hoping someone will be able to point me in the
> direction of a publication that discusses the radar cross-section or
> backscattering properties of a bird in flight.  Are there any papers out
> there about this?  I have found the papers that mention that birds show up
> on radar, but none of them seem to mention the backscattering properties of
> the birds.
>
> The current radars in the United States are very sensitive to the size of
> the object they are reflecting waves off, up to a point.  This can mean very
> different echoes for drizzle drops, rain drops, small hail, very large hail,
> and birds because of the 
> scatteringregime in which it lies 
> (click link to read wikipedia article about
> scattering).  Most particles in the atmosphere that are detected by weather
> radars are in the Rayleigh 
> scatteringregime, but birds 
> don't always fit in this regime, often extending in to the
> Mie scattering  regime which is
> not ideal for US weather radar detection.  However, that is assuming that a
> bird is a sphere, which is a poor assumption.  I am hoping to get my hands
> on some papers about the scattering properties of birds that show how 

Re:[nfc-l] any info on Canadian radar images

[Bryan Guarente]

Jeff and others,
Unless others know a source, I am unaware of anywhere that one can get 
unfiltered Canadian radar data.  Unlike the US, Environment Canada/ 
Meteorological Service of Canada data is private.  

However, I am working with some Environment Canada people right now to see if 
there is a source available for this that I might be able to make available, or 
that is already available.  

I'll keep you posted.

 Bryan Guarente
Instructional Designer
The COMET Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO


  
--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
--

[nfc-l] Pratt program

[Dave Slager]

Hi all,

Since Raven Pro is a bit pricey, and Glassofire does not allow adjusting the
time axis on spectrograms, I've been searching the web for other free
spectrogram software.  An interesting option I've found is a Dutch program
called Praat.

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

This program was designed with phonetics in mind and it is a bit fidgety,
but it does produce nice spectrograms.  The program also runs very fast and
it has the capability for handling very large files (it has an "Open Large
File"
option).  I can open a 1.6 Gb WAV file from a whole night of recording and
page through the spectrogram at any time increment I choose with very little
lag time to load the next section of the spectrogram.  I have not yet found
this functionality (good spectrogram, good handling of large files) in
Syrinx or Raven Lite.

Have any of you found any other good free programs out there for analyzing
and editing NFC sound files?

Dave Slager
Columbus, Ohio


--
NFC-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES

http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
--