Fwd: [nfc-l] Chipping Sparrows, eastern Boulder County, Colorado - and cuckoo lore

2013-07-23 Thread Kenneth V. Rosenberg 
I think this was meant for the full list -- Thanks Ted!


Ken Rosenberg
Conservation Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2412
607-342-4594 (cell)
k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu>

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ted Floyd mailto:tfl...@aba.org>>
Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Chipping Sparrows, eastern Boulder County, Colorado - and 
cuckoo lore
Date: July 23, 2013 10:26:01 AM EDT
To: "Kenneth V. Rosenberg" mailto:k...@cornell.edu>>



And lest we all think we discover new things, here is an excerpt I recently 
discovered while doing research on wintering migrants for a book project -- 
Bent's Life Histories never ceases to amaze me:

On "the mid-summer mid-bight and mid-sky gyrations of the Black-billed Cuckoos" 
(from a letter from Gerald H, Thayer (1908) in sw. NH: "several years before we 
discovered the nocturnal-flight phenomenon, we bean to be puzzled by the 
extreme frequent of

Hi, Ken et al.

Here's an extraordinary paper from 1904:

http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v021n01/p0045-p0050.pdf

The author, Henry H. Kopman, describes how he figured out the flight call of 
the Veery. But what's mind-bending about this Henry Kopman is how much else he 
knew. In describing how commonly he heard Veeries, he just drops in this line:

"[The Veery's nocturnal flight call] was caught up as frequently as the notes 
of Yellow Warblers, Indigo Buntings, Sandpipers, Green Herons, and Night 
Herons."

109 years ago, this guy knew Green Herons and night-herons. He knew Indigo 
Buntings. He even knew warblers!

That's amazing to me. I think of warbler and sparrow flight calls as the last 
frontier of NFC ID, and yet Henry Kopman was on it, big time, more than a 
century ago.

And then the story gets even weirder. Kopman just lost interest. As far as I 
can tell, he never published anything else on nocturnal flight calls (although 
he published on other topics). Yes, a few folks kept the flame alive (Peterson 
in his earlier guides, and Dick Pough too), but knowledge of NFS basically went 
underground until, as Ken says, Bill Evans was out delivering pizza one night...

One other thought. The literature on nocturnal flight calls, ca. 1890-1910, is 
extensive. Kopman wasn't the only one, not by a long shot. Search the 
literature for  O. G. Libby, Paul Griswold Howes, and others, and see for 
yourself!

Ted Floyd
tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org>
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

Ken, in Ithaca NY

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2013, at 10:24 AM, "Jeff Wells" 
mailto:jeffwe...@borealbirds.org>> wrote:

And I heard a Wood Thrush overhead around 10 PM a few nights ago here in 
Gardiner, Maine

Jeff Wells

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2013, at 4:44 AM, "Ted Floyd" 
mailto:tfl...@aba.org>> wrote:

Hello, everybody.

A quick check-in here from somewhere other than the Cayuga Basin...  :-)

Chipping Sparrows are moving over Lafayette, eastern Boulder County, USA, in 
the 2am hour right now, Saturday, July 20th. We believe that these are birds 
bailing on their mountain breeding grounds for literally greener pastures in 
eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where they molt. Regardless, it's an 
annual phenomenon, beginning in mid-July (first nighttime detection this year 
for me was July 16th), in the night skies over the Denver metro area, and it's 
fascinating to witness.

Ted Floyd
tfl...@aba.org<mailto:tfl...@aba.org>
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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Re: [nfc-l] Chipping Sparrows, eastern Boulder County, Colorado - and cuckoo lore

2013-07-23 Thread Kenneth V. Rosenberg 
Yes, most of my YEWAs have been zeeping during the day (including one out my 
window right now), and especially around dusk. I'm still not hearing much at 
night from my house, but I just listen (sporadically) and don't have a 
recording set-up.

I remember you talking about the molt-moivements of Chipping Sparrows, Ted, and 
wondering if dispersing double-brooders in the east do a similar thing -- at 
least sometimes.

And lest we all think we discover new things, here is an excerpt I recently 
discovered while doing research on wintering migrants for a book project -- 
Bent's Life Histories never ceases to amaze me:

On "the mid-summer mid-bight and mid-sky gyrations of the Black-billed Cuckoos" 
(from a letter from Gerald H, Thayer (1908) in sw. NH: "several years before we 
discovered the nocturnal-flight phenomenon, we bean to be puzzled by the 
extreme frequent of Cuckoo calls on summer nights…. They uttered bot the 
cow-cow notes and the rolling guttural call; but the guttural was much the 
commoner of the two, except on dark foggy nights, when the case was usually 
reversed….The birds were often so far up as to be only faintly audible when 
directly overhead,… and this on a still night would seem to mean an elevation 
of at least a hundred and fifty yards. On the evening of July 11…. I heard this 
liquid gurgle note overhead between thirty and forty imps in the course of 
about three hours, during half of which time I was afoot on the road."

1908! And I thought Bill Evans discovered the NFC of Black-billed Cuckoo while 
delivering pizza in Minnesota….

KEN


Ken Rosenberg
Conservation Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2412
607-342-4594 (cell)
k...@cornell.edu

On Jul 23, 2013, at 6:15 AM, Ted Floyd mailto:tfl...@aba.org>>
 wrote:

P.s. Re: Yellow Warblers zeeping everywhere. Same here (Boulder County, 
Colorado), but rarely at night. I don't think I'm just missing them, since I'm 
perfectly able to hear (and record) them by day. They just don't seem to call 
at night; maybe they just don't move at night, either, out West. Probably just 
one of those east-vs.-west things, eh?

Ted Floyd
tfl...@aba.org
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado



Fascinating to think they disperse a night between broods. Meanwhile Yellow 
Warblers zeeping everywhere- should be a mass exodus tonight.

Ken, in Ithaca NY

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2013, at 10:24 AM, "Jeff Wells" 
mailto:jeffwe...@borealbirds.org>> wrote:

And I heard a Wood Thrush overhead around 10 PM a few nights ago here in 
Gardiner, Maine

Jeff Wells

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2013, at 4:44 AM, "Ted Floyd" 
mailto:tfl...@aba.org>> wrote:

Hello, everybody.

A quick check-in here from somewhere other than the Cayuga Basin...  :-)

Chipping Sparrows are moving over Lafayette, eastern Boulder County, USA, in 
the 2am hour right now, Saturday, July 20th. We believe that these are birds 
bailing on their mountain breeding grounds for literally greener pastures in 
eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where they molt. Regardless, it's an 
annual phenomenon, beginning in mid-July (first nighttime detection this year 
for me was July 16th), in the night skies over the Denver metro area, and it's 
fascinating to witness.

Ted Floyd
tfl...@aba.org
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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