RE: [nfc-l] Request from the UK

[caitlin]

Mike-MOWA is Mourning Warbler.  A lovely little bird.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Warbler/lifehistory

 

 

Here's a link to our 4 letter codes, in case we forget

http://www.birdpop.org/AlphaCodes.htm

 

 

Best to you across the pond, and happy birding!

 

Caitlin

 

 

 


Caitlin Coberly, Ph.D
Principal Ecologist 

Merlin Environmental

Office 701-468-5996

Cell   701-720-4760

caitlin_cobe...@merlinenv.com


www.merlinenv.com





 

From: bounce-4212693-10103...@list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-4212693-10103...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Feely
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 4:26 PM
To: nfc-l@cornell.edu
Subject: [nfc-l] Request from the UK

 

Hello all

 

Could I please make a request?

 

Whilst I appreciate that the vast majority of members of this group are
based in North America, I am sure that I am not the only person subscribed
who is not from that region.

 

To that end, can I please ask that at least for the first time that a
species is mentioned, its full name is given? I can work out that MAGW is
Magnolia Warbler and VEER is Veery but it took a lot of head scratching to
figure out what BAOR and SWTH are (Baltimore Oriole & Swainsons Thrush
presumably), and I still have no idea what MOWA is beyond that it must be a
Warbler of some description.

 

This aside, I think that this is a very interesting group and I look forward
to reading more about night time "invismig" on the other side of the
Atlantic and hope that it's scope is broadened to include European
"observations" in the future - our Thrushes will be coming through within
the next month or so and the night-time skies will be full of the "seeps" of
Redwings and (European) Blackbirds. Most night-time sounds here at the
moment here are of wader species (shorebirds), although where I am, I have
yet to hear any so far this season.

 

Many thanks

 

Mike Feely

Nottinghamshire

UK

 

 

 

  _  

From: bounce-4209175-10097...@list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-4209175-10097...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Michael
Lanzone
Sent: 26 August 2009 05:44
To: Michael O'Brien
Cc: Ted Floyd; nfc-l@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Nocturnal migration, Boulder County, Colorado, Aug.
23-25

 

Hi all,

I recorded one MAGW on the Mogollon Rim with Andrew Farnsworth 3 or 4 years
back and then again recorded several in Oregon last year. Beleive me, not an
easy bird to get good flight calls from! I will dig through the pile of
calls and post some. It is MOWA like, but less rising and not as modulated.
Andrew and I also completed getting a lot of other western warbler calls, we
published spectrograms in the latest Auk, we will see about getting some of
them together since there is some interest in them :)

Was out listening for awhile tonight in at Powdermill , not much even though
a lot of activity in the late evening. Some light warbler movement, also
VEERs, RBGRs, BAORs, some SWTHs too...

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 Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Michael O'Brien  wrote:

Ted, et al,

 

Re MacGillivray's, I don't have any recordings but I have heard them give a
husky "seet" much like that from Mourning Warbler. 

 

best wishes,

Michael O'Brien

 


- Original Message -
From: "Ted Floyd" 
To: nfc-l@cornell.edu
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:18:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [nfc-l] Nocturnal migration, Boulder County, Colorado, Aug. 23-25

Hello, all.

1. With light north-northeast winds and decent cloud cover, the pre-dawn
night flight earlier today, Tuesday, Aug. 25th, over Lafayette, Boulder
County, Colorado, was the best thus far this season. (There's something
special about the exact date of Aug. 25th here in Boulder County.)
Anyhow, details at http://tiny.cc/r13NJ

2. Detectable nocturnal migration over Boulder County was light Aug.
23rd and 24th. Basically, just the core species for this time of year:
Wilson's Warbler, presumed Brewer's Sparrow, and dwindling numbers of
Chipping Sparrows. And a cool Red-breasted Nuthatch. Details:
http://tiny.cc/ojbox

3. Just out of curiosity, anybody got good, credible flight calls of
MacGillivray's Warbler? That one has me somewhat flummoxed, I haveta
say.

4. Recent postings from Jay Withgott and Jim Danzenbaker. Great stuff!
And, now, for a brief proclamation from my soapbox. I assume that with
nocturnal flight calls, as with seemingly all other matters
ornithological, we shouldn't think of the phenomenon in simple
"East-vs.-West" terms. Our continent has a fundamental three-part
division, at least ornithologically speaking: (1) East and North; (2)
Interior West; and (3) Pacific Slope. Not that anyone around here has
been guilty of declaring otherwise! But I figured I'd nip it in the bud,
just in case.

All best, 
Ted Floyd (still waiting for just a single, 

[nfc-l] Request from the UK

[Mike Feely]

Hello all

 

Could I please make a request?

 

Whilst I appreciate that the vast majority of members of this group are
based in North America, I am sure that I am not the only person subscribed
who is not from that region.

 

To that end, can I please ask that at least for the first time that a
species is mentioned, its full name is given? I can work out that MAGW is
Magnolia Warbler and VEER is Veery but it took a lot of head scratching to
figure out what BAOR and SWTH are (Baltimore Oriole & Swainsons Thrush
presumably), and I still have no idea what MOWA is beyond that it must be a
Warbler of some description.

 

This aside, I think that this is a very interesting group and I look forward
to reading more about night time "invismig" on the other side of the
Atlantic and hope that it's scope is broadened to include European
"observations" in the future - our Thrushes will be coming through within
the next month or so and the night-time skies will be full of the "seeps" of
Redwings and (European) Blackbirds. Most night-time sounds here at the
moment here are of wader species (shorebirds), although where I am, I have
yet to hear any so far this season.

 

Many thanks

 

Mike Feely

Nottinghamshire

UK

 

 

 

  _  

From: bounce-4209175-10097...@list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-4209175-10097...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Michael
Lanzone
Sent: 26 August 2009 05:44
To: Michael O'Brien
Cc: Ted Floyd; nfc-l@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Nocturnal migration, Boulder County, Colorado, Aug.
23-25

 

Hi all,

I recorded one MAGW on the Mogollon Rim with Andrew Farnsworth 3 or 4 years
back and then again recorded several in Oregon last year. Beleive me, not an
easy bird to get good flight calls from! I will dig through the pile of
calls and post some. It is MOWA like, but less rising and not as modulated.
Andrew and I also completed getting a lot of other western warbler calls, we
published spectrograms in the latest Auk, we will see about getting some of
them together since there is some interest in them :)

Was out listening for awhile tonight in at Powdermill , not much even though
a lot of activity in the late evening. Some light warbler movement, also
VEERs, RBGRs, BAORs, some SWTHs too...

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 Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Michael O'Brien  wrote:

Ted, et al,

 

Re MacGillivray's, I don't have any recordings but I have heard them give a
husky "seet" much like that from Mourning Warbler. 

 

best wishes,

Michael O'Brien

 


- Original Message -
From: "Ted Floyd" 
To: nfc-l@cornell.edu
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:18:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [nfc-l] Nocturnal migration, Boulder County, Colorado, Aug. 23-25

Hello, all.

1. With light north-northeast winds and decent cloud cover, the pre-dawn
night flight earlier today, Tuesday, Aug. 25th, over Lafayette, Boulder
County, Colorado, was the best thus far this season. (There's something
special about the exact date of Aug. 25th here in Boulder County.)
Anyhow, details at http://tiny.cc/r13NJ

2. Detectable nocturnal migration over Boulder County was light Aug.
23rd and 24th. Basically, just the core species for this time of year:
Wilson's Warbler, presumed Brewer's Sparrow, and dwindling numbers of
Chipping Sparrows. And a cool Red-breasted Nuthatch. Details:
http://tiny.cc/ojbox

3. Just out of curiosity, anybody got good, credible flight calls of
MacGillivray's Warbler? That one has me somewhat flummoxed, I haveta
say.

4. Recent postings from Jay Withgott and Jim Danzenbaker. Great stuff!
And, now, for a brief proclamation from my soapbox. I assume that with
nocturnal flight calls, as with seemingly all other matters
ornithological, we shouldn't think of the phenomenon in simple
"East-vs.-West" terms. Our continent has a fundamental three-part
division, at least ornithologically speaking: (1) East and North; (2)
Interior West; and (3) Pacific Slope. Not that anyone around here has
been guilty of declaring otherwise! But I figured I'd nip it in the bud,
just in case.

All best, 
Ted Floyd (still waiting for just a single, stinkin' Catharus thrush...)

---

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

Re: [nfc-l] On the apparent complete absence of Swainson's Thrushes in the Interior West

[Jody Enck]

Ted Floyd wrote:
Ah. Colby has brought up the strange case of the missing Swainson's 
Thrushes: 


Hello everyone,
   I guess this partially answers my unasked question about whether 
Swainson's and other species migrate at some altitude not picked up by 
the equipment typically used.  But I'm still curious about the effects 
of the altitude at which a species migrates on detection rates.  How 
high can the typical software "hear?"  Related to that, what influence 
does topography have on detection.  I live in a "hollow" between hills 
that are several hundred feet higher to the north and to the south.  As 
birds migrate through my area, they need to be high enough to be over 
those hills, so how unlikely am I to detect the vast majority of birds 
migrating over my site because I am so low?


Just curious.
Jody Enck
Ithaca, NY


> Interestingly, ZERO Swainson's Thrushes were heard.  Interestingly, 
in all my nights  
> listening (a couple dozen) in Utah, I never heard a Hermit or 
Swainson's Thrush in either  
> the spring or fall.  I don't know what these birds do between the 
Cascades/Sierras and  
> the Continental Divide given my experiences thus far as I'm certainly 
quite baffled at this  
> point...

It's interesting, isn't it? In their recent monograph on the birds 
of western Colorado, Bob Righter et al. state the following for 
Swainson's Thrush: "Even during spring and fall migration, rarely 
found outside of breeding habitat, suggesting that most birds migrate 
through the mountains and mountain valleys." Coen Dexter, one of the 
coauthors of that monograph, put it even more dramatically to me 
(personal communication in front of 100+ folks when I was doing Q at 
a public talk; insert frowney-face here): There do not appear to be 
any credible records in western Colorado away from mountains and 
mountain valleys. Conversely, if you go east of the Divide, you can 
see 100+ per day on spring migration in Colorado.
 
Anecdotally, that was my impression back in my Nevada days. Swainson's 
Thrush is common as dirt in the broadleaf forests of, say, the Ruby 
Mountains (northeastern Nevada). But it was notable enough in the 
lowlands for us to put it on the hotline. And those lowland records 
tended to be from the far west (Reno area) and south (Las Vegas area). 
I wonder if they were mainly Russet-backed (Pacific slope) birds, not 
Olive-backed (everywhere else) birds.
 
Best, --Ted Floyd
 
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
 
 
 
 
 
 



--


Jody W. Enck, PhD
Human Dimensions Research Unit
Department of Natural Resources
119 Fernow Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853  607-255-8192
www.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/ 




--
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] On the apparent complete absence of Swainson's Thrushes in the Interior West

[Brian Sullivan]

All

When I used to live on the California Channel Islands we would get hundreds
of SWTH in the pre-dawn, and then they were complete ghosts on the ground. I
mean, these things would simply disappear. It wasn't until I accidentally
found them one day that I finally realized what they were doing. Walking a
canyon bottom I flushed one out of a large cherry tree. Then a few more,
etc. Eventually there was a breaking wave of SWTH moving through the canyon
bottom ahead of me, but in the trees they were essentially undetectable. I
spent hours above on the cliffs trying to see one and never did. They must
simply stay very still and well-hidden. I don't fully understand it, I just
know that's what happens on the Channel Islands, where I heard tons and saw
very few--until I knew how to find them.

This of course doesn't mean they are in the interior west is huge numbers
too, I just thought I'd raise the visual detectability issue for this
species.

Brian

On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 2:21 AM, Ted Floyd  wrote:

>  Ah. Colby has brought up the strange case of the missing Swainson's
> Thrushes:
>
> > Interestingly, ZERO Swainson's Thrushes were heard.  Interestingly, in
> all my nights
> > listening (a couple dozen) in Utah, I never heard a Hermit or Swainson's
> Thrush in either
> > the spring or fall.  I don't know what these birds do between the
> Cascades/Sierras and
> > the Continental Divide given my experiences thus far as I'm certainly
> quite baffled at this
> > point...
>
>  It's interesting, isn't it? In their recent monograph on the birds
> of western Colorado, Bob Righter et al. state the following for Swainson's
> Thrush: "Even during spring and fall migration, rarely found outside of
> breeding habitat, suggesting that most birds migrate through the mountains
> and mountain valleys." Coen Dexter, one of the coauthors of that monograph,
> put it even more dramatically to me (personal communication in front of 100+
> folks when I was doing Q at a public talk; insert frowney-face
> here): There do not appear to be any credible records in western Colorado
> away from mountains and mountain valleys. Conversely, if you go east of the
> Divide, you can see 100+ per day on spring migration in Colorado.
>
> Anecdotally, that was my impression back in my Nevada days. Swainson's
> Thrush is common as dirt in the broadleaf forests of, say, the Ruby
> Mountains (northeastern Nevada). But it was notable enough in the lowlands
> for us to put it on the hotline. And those lowland records tended to be from
> the far west (Reno area) and south (Las Vegas area). I wonder if they were
> mainly Russet-backed (Pacific slope) birds, not Olive-backed (everywhere
> else) birds.
>
> Best, --Ted Floyd
>
> Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
===
Brian L. Sullivan
Pacific Grove, CA

eBird/AKN Project Leader
www.ebird.org
www.avianknowledge.net

Photographic Editor,
Birds of North America Online
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Photographic Editor,
North American Birds
American Birding Association
www.americanbirding.org

bl...@cornell.edu
609-694-3280
---

--
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] Pacific Grove, CA, 26 August

[Brian Sullivan]

Birders

Sleepless tonight with a pinched nerve I decided to give a listen for .5 hr
at 1 AM this morning. Dense marine layer and calm winds. One Barn Owl was
the only bird heard. This species does not nest locally (within 15 miles
though) and could be migrating on this date, or just a wandering juvenile. I
typically hear only SWTH in the pre-dawn, and not much else until later
in fall when sparrows are more obvious. An occasional oddball thing like a
flock
of Elegant Terns adds spice, but overall it's pretty quiet outside of the
SWTH. In any case, I'll try to get out and listen a bit more here. Negative
data are good data right???

Brian

-- 
===
Brian L. Sullivan
Pacific Grove, CA

eBird/AKN Project Leader
www.ebird.org
www.avianknowledge.net

Photographic Editor,
Birds of North America Online
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Photographic Editor,
North American Birds
American Birding Association
www.americanbirding.org

bl...@cornell.edu
609-694-3280
---

--
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] On the apparent complete absence of Swainson's Thrushes in the Interior West

[Ted Floyd]

Ah. Colby has brought up the strange case of the missing Swainson's
Thrushes: 
 
> Interestingly, ZERO Swainson's Thrushes were heard.  Interestingly, in
all my nights  
> listening (a couple dozen) in Utah, I never heard a Hermit or
Swainson's Thrush in either  
> the spring or fall.  I don't know what these birds do between the
Cascades/Sierras and  
> the Continental Divide given my experiences thus far as I'm certainly
quite baffled at this  
> point...


It's interesting, isn't it? In their recent monograph on the birds of
western Colorado, Bob Righter et al. state the following for Swainson's
Thrush: "Even during spring and fall migration, rarely found outside of
breeding habitat, suggesting that most birds migrate through the
mountains and mountain valleys." Coen Dexter, one of the coauthors of
that monograph, put it even more dramatically to me (personal
communication in front of 100+ folks when I was doing Q at a public
talk; insert frowney-face here): There do not appear to be any credible
records in western Colorado away from mountains and mountain valleys.
Conversely, if you go east of the Divide, you can see 100+ per day on
spring migration in Colorado.
 
Anecdotally, that was my impression back in my Nevada days. Swainson's
Thrush is common as dirt in the broadleaf forests of, say, the Ruby
Mountains (northeastern Nevada). But it was notable enough in the
lowlands for us to put it on the hotline. And those lowland records
tended to be from the far west (Reno area) and south (Las Vegas area). I
wonder if they were mainly Russet-backed (Pacific slope) birds, not
Olive-backed (everywhere else) birds.
 
Best, --Ted Floyd
 
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
 
 
 
 
 
 

--
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
--