American Woodcock Wing Sound

I recorded this American Woodcock wing sound yesterday morning when a bird flew over my NFC microphone in my yard.  I usually hear these guys when they are displaying in April, so who knows how often they are actually flying over my yard.  I intend to record all through the winter this year, so who knows what kind of fun stuff I will find.

Pre Dawn Thrush Flight 30 September 2014

I recorded over 310 thrush calls between 5am and 6:35am at my home in Hunterdon County, NJ this morning.  Here's the eBird checklist.

As always, there are many calls that I'm still puzzling over.  Here's a spectrogram of a call sequence from 6:09am:

You can download the audio of this clip, and follow any possible discussion of it from my post on the Nocturnal Flight Call Facebook group.

Back in the NFC Saddle

This past spring I crashed the laptop I was recording night flight calls on, and I didn't get my MacBook Pro set up to record until last night.  But I'm back in business now thanks to my Griffin iMic adapter and Audacity software.  Still recording using the Oldbird 21c mic.  Since the Oldbird detectors aren't set up for the Mac, for now I'm just recording then browsing the spectrogram by hand to find and ID the calls.

Here's my eBird checklist from early this morning.

Night Flight Calls--15 August

Perhaps the best nocturnal migration calling of the fall so far.  Here are the calls from 9pm-12am on August 15:

Here are the calls from 12-5:30am on the morning of August 16:

One thing that is interesting here is how much lighter the bands of insect noise were as the night wore on.

Night Flight Calls--19 Aug 2013

Very few NFCs detected during the night of 19-20 August.

Night Flight Calls--16 Aug 2013

Starting to go through my recordings for this fall season.  Here are the calls recorded on the night of Aug 16-17--the best call night I've seen so far this fall.  Most nights there is heavy insect noise, which makes it difficult to detect migrant calls (if there are any).  Will post more on call IDs later.

NJ Nocturnal Migration--24 October 2012

A spot of rain about 3:30am didn't seem to slow things down very much.

Here is a sample of calls:

Mostly White-throated Sparrow, but some Savannah Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, and Yellow-rumped Warbler in the mix.  A quick look at the sort showed found a Common Yellowthroat and probable White-crowned Sparrow as well.  

More details as I sort these more carefully.

NJ Nocturnal Migration--16 October 2012

Big sparrow flight on the night of 16-17 October 2012.  388 calls including 17 Thrush-X detections (mostly Hermit Thrush and Swainson's Thrush).

Lots of White-throated Sparrow and Chipping Sparrow, with Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and perhaps others.  Warbler calls detected include Black-throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.  There are bound to be additional species here upon closer inspection.

NJ Nocturnal Migration--15 October 2012

So last night there was a moderate amount of bird movement shown or NEXRAD in NJ and across the coastal NE states after the front moved through earlier in the afternoon and evening.

Note line of green storm clouds moving off the east coast, with bird migration behind it.

Between 7:10pm and 6:30am, my microphone autodetectors picked up 69 detections, all from the Tseep-X detector, as the thrush migration winds down.  Here are the first 63 calls (click for larger view):

As seen so far this week, mostly sparrows including White-throated Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow.  Also still a few Common Yellowthroat (eg. 1C and 2F) and a Black-throated Blue Warbler (not shown).  Some of the calls (eg. 6C and 7D) are high pitched and faint, and I'm not sure yet what they are--perhaps waxwings or kinglets.  Stay tuned!

NJ Nocturnal Migration--14 October 2012

Another slow night of migration, with sparrows dominating--61 detections.

Thrush-X: 1 detection
Tseep-X: 56 detections
Other: 4 detections, including series of finch calls 1A-1D and apparent Pine Siskin 1E/7A.

Sparrows dominated by White-throated Sparrow calls, a few Savannah Sparrows (1F-1H), and Chipping Sparrow (eg. 5H).

NJ Nocturnal Migration--13 October 2012

Migration slowed recently, and the switch from warblers to sparrows in the mix is almost complete.  On 13-14 October 2012 the autodetectors located 68 calls, including

Tseep-X: 3
Thrush-X: 60
Other: A series of finch calls (1A-1E)

Here are most of the calls:

Note mostly White-throated Sparrows, with a few presumed Savannah Sparrow (2H, 4A).  Thrushes appear to be Swainson's Thrush (1F, 1G, 1H).

NJ Nocturnal Migration--12 October 2012

With the switch to north winds yesterday, a big migration was expected across the Northeast last night.

Wind map from www.intellicast.com

 As shown in the radar, there was a big movement of birds.

Unfortunately for ground based observers, most of these birds were very high.  At the distance I live from the NEXRAD station, the radar is picking up birds over 5,000 feet up.

So there were lots of birds, but flying so high the microphone may not have picked up many of their calls.

Gray-cheeked Thrush (1D top below) at 8:55pm

The autodetectors were able to pick up 181 calls on my recording from last night, including:

Thrush-X--11 detections (including 2 Gray-cheeked Thrush with the more numerous Swainson's Thrush)
Tseep-X--159 detections, almost all sparrows
Several others, including a couple series of Canada Goose calls (1A, 1I, 2A-2D top)

Here are spectrograms of the calls from last night (click to enlarge the images).

A preliminary look shows mostly White-throated Sparrows (eg. 1C-1F bottom), Chipping Sparrows (eg. 2A, 2C middle), and a few Savannah Sparrows (eg. 2E middle).  Indigo Buntings have mostly passed through by now, but see for example a call at 7I (middle).

There were only a few warblers, including Common Yellowthroat (7A bottom), Black-throated Blue Warbler (7F top), Palm Warbler (7D middle), and Northern Parula (4D middle).

Also note the first Hermit Thrush of the season at 3D (top).

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

NJ Nocturnal Migration--10 October 2012

So last night NJ had some pretty heavy winds from the WNW, up to 15 mph or so, making night flight call recording a bit difficult at times, and perhaps limiting some of the migration.  Here's the wind map at midnight.

On NEXRAD you can see what looks like a few birds in the air in western NJ (arrow), though migration was light across most of the NE and heavier in the SE and Midwest.

My recording station at home in Hunterdon County picked up a light migration.  I listened from 8:43-mindnight and heard mostly a few Tseep calls, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, and Swainson's Thrush.

Tseep-X and Thrush-X autodetection software located a total of 73 calls, including:

Thrush calls:  3 (all appear to be Swainson's Thrush)
Tseep calls:  68
Other:  1 possible heron call

Here are most of the bird calls detected by Tseep-X and Thrush-X software as viewed in the Oldbird GlassOFire software.

Click for larger view

Some initial quick IDs:

Swainson's Thrush calls (1B, 1D, 1E)
Ovenbird (2A)
Savannah Sparrow (1H, 5C)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (4B, 4C, 4F, 4G, 4H)
White-throated Sparrow (5H, 6G, etc.)
Northern Parula (7I)
Common Yellowthroat (2C, 3D)

Some of th eothers are faint or unclear.  Not sure what the tseep calls including 2B, 3B, 3F.  Blackpoll Warblers are still moving through in small numbers, so that might be the most likely candidate.  3G might be a Bay-breasted Warbler.  I'll have to take a closer look at the double-banded upsweeps at 2E and 6B--might be Tennessee Warbler.

Warbler numbers are declining, and sparrow numbers are climbing.  Hoping for better wind conditions and migrant passage tonight.