NJ Nocturnal Migration--11 October 2012

Last night brought light southwest winds to NJ, and with them slightly better bird migration than the strong west winds of 10 October.  

Below is the NEXRAD image from 10pm, showing fairly heavy reflectivity across NJ.

But not a lot of southward movement--most of the white in the middle is reflectivity--probably birds--since it is moving eastbound against the wind and parallel to the radar station rather than towards it.

At any rate, my autodetectors picked up 109 NFCs, including:
       9 Thrush (all Swainson's Thrush) and
     95 Tseep-X detections.

Here are the detected calls (click on image to get a larger view):

In addition to higher numbers of birds, it also is apparent that warbler numbers are down and sparrow numbers are up.  There appeared to be a few Chipping Sparrows moving (including 3B-3F top, and 4C and 4D bottom).  Of interest to me is the apparent Northern Parula (3A bottom)--while this species is still showing up as regular on my local eBird checklist, I haven't seen one on the ground for weeks.  I'm also intrigued by what looks to be Black-throated Blue Warblers (including at 1A, 1C bottom)--I'm not seeing these on the ground either, though a few are still being reported on eBird.  Common Yellowthroat is at 3H and 6C, 6D (top)

Otherwise looks like we've got some Savannah Sparrows (including 5G top), Song Sparrow (including 7G top), and White-throated Sparrows (including 5D bottom).  5A and 5B (top) look like they might be White-crowned Sparrow, so I need to look at them more closely.  Also, at just over 7kHz the call at 4G (top) looks a little low for the examples I have of Grasshopper Sparrow, but not sure what else it might be.

I also haven't figured out yet what if anything is at 1A, 1B (top).  At the time I thought it sounded like a heron, but with the bulk of the sound between 2-3 kHz, I haven't quite identified it yet.

Note also the American Goldfinch "pu-ti-ti-ti" flight calls at 2C and 2D (top) recorded going over at 4:41am EDT.

Such are the joys and excitement of NFC listening and watching.  While I was listening to my mic last night I heard a giant car wreck out in front of my house.  OK, I only figured that out later after I talked to my neighbor this morning.  At the time it just was an overwhelming noise.

Looking forward to tonight--as temperatures have dropped and winds are predicted out of the north!  Bring on the migrants!

Wind prediction for 12 October 2012