The great sparrow migration of Austin, TX, that occurred in numbers with the
north winds of pacific cold fronts, finally ended the last week of November.
Although each night that was not rainy still produced from 1 to 29 birds, there
seems to be no relationship to wind direction, cold weather, or clear or cloudy
skies.
The birds recorded are mainly the sparrows easily found in the fields
surrounding Austinsavannah, vesper, chipping, song, Lincoln, field,
white-crowned, white-throated. With the slow nightly recording, we have
visited the field to record the seep calls of all these species just mentioned.
To a species, each produces the seep calls in broad daylight anytime of the
day that have been recorded at night the last 3 months. Don’t get me wrong,
they, of course, give lots of other notes but they regularly seep during the
day and can be easily compared to the nightly records. Field sparrows will
regularly give the Evans CD version and also a slightly shorter down slurred
at-the-beginning seep that we have yet to see at night.Chipping sparrows
are another case. A feeding flock will give those chip notes that we all are
use to but if disturbed will fly into the nearest tree while giving the seep
notes that we hear so often at night.
BTW, just to be clear, all the notes above are from comparisons of the
sonograms not from ear listening. (Sometimes I am confused on this listserv
whether people are comparing sonograms or just judging using their ears alone.)
We remain bumfuzzled by Harris Sparrow which are wintering here in abundance.
As you all know, they give a wide range of sounds on the wintering grounds.
We were excited to hear them seep regularly but the resultant sonogram is a
dogleg down that should standout from all others but which we have yet to see
at night. And the Evans CD seems unsure of their nocturnal calls, if any.
Anyone have these figured out?
LeConte’s which can be found in the Austin area were still being recorded at
night through mid-december. We have yet to attempt day time field recording
of LeConte’s for comparison to nightly sonograms.
Nelson Sparrows? We have recorded 102 possible Nelson’s. Which are listed
as accidental in Austin according to bird checklists. Exciting...if true
-Mike Farmer
equipment
Mic – Oldbird 21c
Software – Oldbird tseep, thrush, GlassOFire, Raven Pro
--
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/
--
