Hello, Birders. Out here in the Front Range region of Colorado, we're at the peak now of detectable "fall" landbird migration. Seems like the peak period runs from around August 20th till around September 10th. And things sure do drop off fast after September 10th, it seems--right around the time the first big thrush flights are noted Back East.
For what it's worth, here's a summary of what I've heard thus far this "fall" at Greenlee Preserve, Boulder County, Colorado. I've listened on 20 nights from July 17th through August 24th. Each night that I'm out, I listen (and sometimes make recordings) for at least 15 minutes between midnight and the beginning of nautical dawn. An asterisk before a species' name means the identification is tentative, provisional, uncertain, or otherwise problematic. Here goes: Species, followed by number of nights on which heard (n=20 nights total) 1. Passerines presumed to be on nocturnal migration. *Orange-crowned Warbler 1 Yellow Warbler 3 *MacGillivray's Warbler 1 Wilson's Warbler 4 *Northern Waterthrush 1 Chipping Sparrow 16 *Brewer's Sparrow 5 Lark Sparrow 3 *Lark Bunting 5 *Black-headed Grosbeak 1 *Western Meadowlark 1 *Bullock's Oriole 1 2. Shorebirds (and a heron) presumed to be migrating. Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Semipalmated Plover 1 Solitary Sandpiper 3 Upland Sandpiper 2 Least Sandpiper 2 Baird's Sandpiper 2 3. Species presumed not to be on active migration. Canada Goose 9 Mallard 10 Great Blue Heron 3 American Coot 8 Sora 1 Eurasian Collared-Dove 2 Barn Owl 5 Greater Horned Owl 4 Barn Swallow 16 American Robin 3 European Starling 3 Red-winged Blackbird 2 Common Grackle 1 Comment: Note that fully 2/3 (8 out of 12) of the species in list 1 are indicated by an asterisk. What can I say?--we're still learning the basics Out West. ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Follow Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- -- 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/ --
