RE: [nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA
A flock of about 150 Brant flew north at dusk, low over the Hudson River in New Baltimore, Greene County, NY. This mid-May mass movement of Brant is an annual event witnessed by many Stripe Bass fishermen out on the Hudson while the herring are running, and the stripers are hitting. I've noticed NEXRAD patterns during daylight hours of what may have been raptor or large waterfowl (geese/swans?) movements along the Lake Ontario south shore in the spring. I tried to corroborate this with the hawk watches with no conclusive results. Maybe next spring. Rich Guthrie New Baltimore, The Greene County, New York gael...@capital.net _ From: bounce-5852472-10071...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-5852472-10071...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of wrevans Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 10:33 PM To: nfc-L@cornell.edu Subject: re: [nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA Marshall, Before the substantial songbird takeoff on the Binghamton NEXRAD tonight (somewhere perhaps between 8PM-8:30PM) I noted a large arch shaped fast moving blob in the northeast quadrant moving differently than the weather signatures -- at the time I thought it had to be a huge flock of waterfowl or shorebirds but I was perplexed by the direction of flight, which was WNW. I'll see if I can find it on NCAR in the morning -- the other eastern NEXRAD may show similar targets. Bill E _ From: "Marshall Iliff" Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 9:21 PM To: bostonbi...@googlegroups.com, "Massbird" , nfc-l@cornell.edu Subject: [nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA All, This evening I visited my local patch on the south side of Boston and was surprised and pleased to notice one flock, then another, and then another etc. of White-winged Scoters passing high overhead. This site is about 10 miles inland and so this clearly represented a departure from coastal staging areas and the beginnings of an overland nocturnal migration. They passed over in a tight window from 19:50-20:10 and a flock of 80 Brant was soon to follow. Despite much scanning from 8:10-8:30 (at which point it was effectively dark), I was unable to spot any other signs of movement. In any event, I thought it would be worth getting the word out that tonight seems to be a night for movement of coastal waterbirds. Perhaps Whimbrel or other shorebirds will join as the night wears on. A full eBird list from my dusk watch is below. Best, Marshall Iliff West Roxbury, MA -- Marshall J. Iliff miliff AT aol.com West Roxbury, MA -- eBird/AKN Project Leader www.ebird.org www.avianknowledge.net Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ithaca, NY -- Location: Millennium Park Observation date: 5/21/10 Notes: An amazing visit, I started with a visit with the Garveys (Matt had seen the clay-colored earlier--it was not singing while I was there). Then as I began my walk at about 7:50, I spotted a very distant flock well to the south. Since cormorants should not be flying at dusk, I was immediately intrigued and sprinted back to the car for my scope. I was able to confirm that they were White-winged Scoters, and had a total of 6-7 flights (often involving flocks fragmented into 4-5 pieces) of birds all passing high overhead and off to the northwest. With light southeasterlies tonight, it is a perfect night for migration. I settled in for some serious scanning, but all waterfowl were clustered in 20 minutes from 7:50-8:10. I was hoping for Brant and had to wait only 13 minutes before spotting a flock. After that my hopes turned to Whimbrel, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and other marine shorebirds, but it was not to be. Still, a great visit, especially since new Millennium Park birds are so hard to come by these days! WEATHER: Clear, light SE or E winds, 50 F. Number of species: 21 Brant (Atlantic) 80 **rare; low flock flying just above eye level and identifiable to subspecies as it headed straight westward towards me and then veered off to fly north along VFW Parkway as though avoiding the landfill. My first for Millennium! Canada Goose 10 Wood Duck 5 flocks of 1 and 4 in dusk flight heading W Mallard 4 White-winged Scoter 630 **rare; amazing dusk flight of birds flying very high. I first spotted several flocks totalling ca. 200 birds off to the south, and they were all the same size and consistent in shape with White-winged Scoter. When they passed against dark clouds I could see faint white secondaries. Later, one flock of 40 flew right overhead (but very high) allowing easy ID in scope, and another flock was far out to east (total of 340 now), while two more large flocks (totalling 290 more but identifiable as scoter sp. only) had already passed me or were specks off to the SW. Amazing flight, and my first White-winged Scoters for Millennium (although a small group of high-flying ducks in October one year were likely this species). G
re: [nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA
Marshall, Before the substantial songbird takeoff on the Binghamton NEXRAD tonight (somewhere perhaps between 8PM-8:30PM) I noted a large arch shaped fast moving blob in the northeast quadrant moving differently than the weather signatures -- at the time I thought it had to be a huge flock of waterfowl or shorebirds but I was perplexed by the direction of flight, which was WNW. I'll see if I can find it on NCAR in the morning -- the other eastern NEXRAD may show similar targets. Bill E From: "Marshall Iliff" Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 9:21 PM To: bostonbi...@googlegroups.com, "Massbird" , nfc-l@cornell.edu Subject: [nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA All, This evening I visited my local patch on the south side of Boston and was surprised and pleased to notice one flock, then another, and then another etc. of White-winged Scoters passing high overhead. This site is about 10 miles inland and so this clearly represented a departure from coastal staging areas and the beginnings of an overland nocturnal migration. They passed over in a tight window from 19:50-20:10 and a flock of 80 Brant was soon to follow. Despite much scanning from 8:10-8:30 (at which point it was effectively dark), I was unable to spot any other signs of movement. In any event, I thought it would be worth getting the word out that tonight seems to be a night for movement of coastal waterbirds. Perhaps Whimbrel or other shorebirds will join as the night wears on. A full eBird list from my dusk watch is below. Best, Marshall Iliff West Roxbury, MA -- Marshall J. Iliff miliff AT aol.com West Roxbury, MA -- eBird/AKN Project Leader www.ebird.org www.avianknowledge.net Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ithaca, NY -- Location: Millennium Park Observation date: 5/21/10 Notes: An amazing visit, I started with a visit with the Garveys (Matt had seen the clay-colored earlier--it was not singing while I was there). Then as I began my walk at about 7:50, I spotted a very distant flock well to the south. Since cormorants should not be flying at dusk, I was immediately intrigued and sprinted back to the car for my scope. I was able to confirm that they were White-winged Scoters, and had a total of 6-7 flights (often involving flocks fragmented into 4-5 pieces) of birds all passing high overhead and off to the northwest. With light southeasterlies tonight, it is a perfect night for migration. I settled in for some serious scanning, but all waterfowl were clustered in 20 minutes from 7:50-8:10. I was hoping for Brant and had to wait only 13 minutes before spotting a flock. After that my hopes turned to Whimbrel, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and other marine shorebirds, but it was not to be. Still, a great visit, especially since new Millennium Park birds are so hard to come by these days! WEATHER: Clear, light SE or E winds, 50 F. Number of species: 21 Brant (Atlantic) 80 **rare; low flock flying just above eye level and identifiable to subspecies as it headed straight westward towards me and then veered off to fly north along VFW Parkway as though avoiding the landfill. My first for Millennium! Canada Goose 10 Wood Duck 5 flocks of 1 and 4 in dusk flight heading W Mallard 4 White-winged Scoter 630 **rare; amazing dusk flight of birds flying very high. I first spotted several flocks totalling ca. 200 birds off to the south, and they were all the same size and consistent in shape with White-winged Scoter. When they passed against dark clouds I could see faint white secondaries. Later, one flock of 40 flew right overhead (but very high) allowing easy ID in scope, and another flock was far out to east (total of 340 now), while two more large flocks (totalling 290 more but identifiable as scoter sp. only) had already passed me or were specks off to the SW. Amazing flight, and my first White-winged Scoters for Millennium (although a small group of high-flying ducks in October one year were likely this species). Great Blue Heron 1 flying south along treeline Herring Gull 3 flock of three (including two ratty immatures) flying due north as scoters were headed NW and inland Common Nighthawk 14 *high count; my first May record for Millennium and a nice count for spring Chimney Swift 6 Willow Flycatcher 3 whitting below North Parking Lot Tree Swallow 10 Barn Swallow 3 swallow sp. 15 spiraling in to roost in South Marsh American Robin 8 Northern Mockingbird 2 European Starling 15 Cedar Waxwing 8 a couple small flocks flying past Common Yellowthroat 1 Savannah Sparrow 4 singing Song Sparrow 1 Red-winged Blackbird 8 Common Grackle 8 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) -- 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) ht
[nfc-l] Dusk flight of White-winged Scoters and Brant over Boston, MA
All, This evening I visited my local patch on the south side of Boston and was surprised and pleased to notice one flock, then another, and then another etc. of White-winged Scoters passing high overhead. This site is about 10 miles inland and so this clearly represented a departure from coastal staging areas and the beginnings of an overland nocturnal migration. They passed over in a tight window from 19:50-20:10 and a flock of 80 Brant was soon to follow. Despite much scanning from 8:10-8:30 (at which point it was effectively dark), I was unable to spot any other signs of movement. In any event, I thought it would be worth getting the word out that tonight seems to be a night for movement of coastal waterbirds. Perhaps Whimbrel or other shorebirds will join as the night wears on. A full eBird list from my dusk watch is below. Best, Marshall Iliff West Roxbury, MA -- Marshall J. Iliff miliff AT aol.com West Roxbury, MA -- eBird/AKN Project Leader www.ebird.org www.avianknowledge.net Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ithaca, NY -- Location: Millennium Park Observation date: 5/21/10 Notes: An amazing visit, I started with a visit with the Garveys (Matt had seen the clay-colored earlier--it was not singing while I was there). Then as I began my walk at about 7:50, I spotted a very distant flock well to the south. Since cormorants should not be flying at dusk, I was immediately intrigued and sprinted back to the car for my scope. I was able to confirm that they were White-winged Scoters, and had a total of 6-7 flights (often involving flocks fragmented into 4-5 pieces) of birds all passing high overhead and off to the northwest. With light southeasterlies tonight, it is a perfect night for migration. I settled in for some serious scanning, but all waterfowl were clustered in 20 minutes from 7:50-8:10. I was hoping for Brant and had to wait only 13 minutes before spotting a flock. After that my hopes turned to Whimbrel, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and other marine shorebirds, but it was not to be. Still, a great visit, especially since new Millennium Park birds are so hard to come by these days! WEATHER: Clear, light SE or E winds, 50 F. Number of species: 21 Brant (Atlantic) 80 **rare; low flock flying just above eye level and identifiable to subspecies as it headed straight westward towards me and then veered off to fly north along VFW Parkway as though avoiding the landfill. My first for Millennium! Canada Goose 10 Wood Duck 5 flocks of 1 and 4 in dusk flight heading W Mallard 4 White-winged Scoter 630 **rare; amazing dusk flight of birds flying very high. I first spotted several flocks totalling ca. 200 birds off to the south, and they were all the same size and consistent in shape with White-winged Scoter. When they passed against dark clouds I could see faint white secondaries. Later, one flock of 40 flew right overhead (but very high) allowing easy ID in scope, and another flock was far out to east (total of 340 now), while two more large flocks (totalling 290 more but identifiable as scoter sp. only) had already passed me or were specks off to the SW. Amazing flight, and my first White-winged Scoters for Millennium (although a small group of high-flying ducks in October one year were likely this species). Great Blue Heron 1 flying south along treeline Herring Gull 3 flock of three (including two ratty immatures) flying due north as scoters were headed NW and inland Common Nighthawk 14 *high count; my first May record for Millennium and a nice count for spring Chimney Swift 6 Willow Flycatcher 3 whitting below North Parking Lot Tree Swallow 10 Barn Swallow 3 swallow sp. 15 spiraling in to roost in South Marsh American Robin 8 Northern Mockingbird 2 European Starling 15 Cedar Waxwing 8 a couple small flocks flying past Common Yellowthroat 1 Savannah Sparrow 4 singing Song Sparrow 1 Red-winged Blackbird 8 Common Grackle 8 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) -- 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/ --
[nfc-l] please disregard my last post
I just sent a post to list-serve that wasn't complete yet. Hit the send button by accident instead of "save as draft." Many humble apologies. I intended to finish it, proofreading and grammar corrections over the next week or so and send it at that point. Sorry, Andy Martin Gaithersburg -- 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/ --
[nfc-l] misc. NFC musings from this season
On trying to put together a less noisy recording set up: I have really grown dissatisfied with the noisiness of my current recording set-up (Crown PZM Soundgrabber II mic to preamp to Sony PCM m10 Flash recorder) and did not realize how quiet a mic could be until I used the Sony m10 to record some daytime bird song. Wow was it quiet compared to my night time set-up. I really would like to have this kind of "noise floor" reduction when recording NFCs. I tried recording NFCs directly to the Sony m10s internal speakers, and the calls sounded great with the background hiss just about nonexistent but a lot of the spectrograms seemed to have a lot of smear in them compared with the pzm mic. I could also definitively detect the high frequency dB boost you get with a PZM mic vs. the Sony's internal condenser mics. I tried to set up the Sony m10 "Old Bird" style in a flower pot which only made the smearing worse. I guess this would be from the reflected sound bouncing around inside the flower pot and arriving at the mic out of phase. After Making better spectrograms: I use Ravenlite and SyrinxPC to look at and make spectrograms but one thing that has always bugged me is none of my Indigo Bunting or presumed Northern Waterthrush calls ever matched up detail wise to how they appear on Evans/O'Brien Flight Call CD. I especially like the fine detail of the call on the opening page of the Northern Waterthrush section. A few weeks back, I opened the sound file for this particular call into Ravenlite but could not reproduce the detail. Tried it in SyrinxPC and could not do it with that program either. I was however, able to recreate it with the demo version of Raven Pro. I would like to get Raven Pro, but will have to wait on purchase since I just put a good deal of money into upgrading my recording system. Louder, lower calls sometimes come on nights with seemingly less than ideal migration conditions: My recording set-up is what you would call a dry night system. Its not waterproofed via "Old Bird" style, so I don't leave it out to record every night, especially when rain is in forecast. A few times this season, I have recorded on light or little wind out of northerly direction, and while quantity of calls was low, to my delight, birds that were migrating seemed to be lower to ground than usual, producing some better quality calls. Trying to get some flight calls of non-passerines to help with night time IDs: My remote recording spot seems to produce less flight calls than over my house: -- 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/ --
