25-30 attended the impromptu nocturnal migration event on Mt. Pleasant last night, and it was not a case of the early bird gets the worm. Opposite my big night prediction, the first hour or so was very slow with just a few calls heard, but it was a beautiful starry night with a very pleasant crowd to mingle with.
Those who stayed or arrived after 10:30pm got treated to steady migration that seemed to build as time went on. The action really got started when a raucous flock of green herons passed to the west. Thereafter were Black-crowned Night-Heron, Sora, Least Bittern, and shortly after midnight an American Bittern. Amidst the building flight was a steady passage of Veery and by midnight the “pink” of the Bobolink was regular. Also in the mix were a few Swainson’s Thrush and a Black-billed Cuckoo. The warbler flight became steady after 11pm with Chestnut-sided and Common Yellowthroat the most prevalent identifiable calls along with some nice examples of Canada Warbler. Interestingly, American Redstarts didn’t start regular calling until around midnight. Thanks to all who attended, and to the Cornell facilities and astronomy staff who facilitated use of the grounds at the Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory. Special thanks to Chris T-H for expert operation of and commentary on the spectrographic stream of the real-time audio produced by Cornell’s bioacoustic analysis software, “Raven”. More savory details of the night coming in an article in the Cayuga Bird Club newsletter. Bill Evans -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
