As part of the fun of spending 24 hours chasing birds for the Birding Cup, the Nemesis Birders will be periodically sending out updates from the field. Justine’s group, the Loonatics, is competing in the Potter’s Mug competition and will also be posting some updates. Check back periodically to join in the fun and see how we are doing! And we are still looking for pledges (until 7pm Saturday).
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It’s the time of year when we are all thinking warbler migration. But before warblers are peaking sparrows are migrating through. Often more secretive, and not as brightly colored as the much anticipated warblers, some get overlooked… OK, not by everyone :). Over the last several days in Somerset County, PA large numbers of Grasshopper Sparrows have been moving through. During nocturnal migration I went out this week to listen and record the overflight. To my pleasant surprise, Grasshopper Sparrows were more common than I normally hear at night. Below is a picture of a spectrogram from one that flew over. The Grasshopper Sparrow flight-call is a high slightly rising call you can see in the center, usually starting around 7.5-8kHz and rising about 0.5 to 1kHz. The call just after it is a Black-billed Cuckoo. Both recorded using a nocturnal plate iPhone microphone in Somerset, PA.
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Dave and Trudy Kyler, two of Huntingdon County’s top birders, found a beautiful adult Clay-colored Sparrow yesterday morning at Old Crow Wetlands. My friends and I were busy with finals and other things, but we finally had some time to run down to Old Crow and search for it earlier today. After a few minutes of searching, Ian Gardner spotted the sparrow in some short trees near the parking area. The bird jumped from tree to tree, foraging non-stop and occasionally singing its buzzing song. Photographing the bird was difficult because of the terrible natural lighting and because the bird was always above us, offering only odd angles for me to try to compose a decent shot.
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Worm-eating Warbler Northern Waterthrush Blue-headed Vireo [dc]T[/dc]oday was a fantastic morning to be out, and the banding station at the Arboretum at Penn State was no exception. Looking at the mornings radar had indicated that we saw a moderate to heavy influx of birds, and this really panned out in the field. Just walking around to set up the nets it was obvious that there had been a decent overnight arrival as the Gray Catbirds were everywhere, Indigo Buntings were buzzing from the tree tops. After setting up the nets it took a long time to get back to the banding station because there was so much going on. Steve, Nadia and I quickly picked up Wilson’s Warbler and White-eyed Vireo. Nashville Warblers were everywhere and White-crowned Sparrows were singing from every hedge around. One tree held at least 10 different Yellow-rumped Warblers at a time.
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This morning a few of us birded Lederer Park and Walnut Springs Park in State College, which was loaded with migrants. This morning was the second morning in a row here in Centre County that I have seen good numbers of warblers and other migrants. Highlights were 15 species of warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, and a Scarlet Tanager. Here is a link to our checklist for Lederer from 9:10am till 9:45am. Another Lederer list from 10:20am till 11:20am. Here is our list from Walnut Springs from 8:50am till 9:05am. At this rate, things look great for us to be able to rack up a nice warbler list for the Birding Cup! I can’t wait to see what other FOY species show up this week.
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Regional Overview Migration was heavy across the region, but particularly so in western PA, New York and Ohio (notice all the green in the center of the blue ‘donuts’ on the radar. Winds were light and birds definitely took advantage of that fact and took to the skies last night. There should be a lot of new arrivals and densities of new birds should be higher than previous days. The only precipitation in the region was a storm that worked its way through NY early in the evening down to eastern PA after midnight last night. Pennsylvania Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation. There was heavy migration in the western part of the state, but it was going pretty strong in the east as well. A storm that worked its way through se PA may have been well timed to create fallouts of warblers and other migrants.
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Regional Overview For the third night in a row, migration was good across much of the region. Some precipitation did move through the area, hopefully resulting in some local concentrations of migrants. South winds were key in the mass migration and may provide great hawk watching conditions along the lake and ridges. The bulk of migrants in the region has shifted to warblers and other Neo-tropical migrants. Pennsylvania Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation. Rain moved through sw PA while the nights migration was just getting picked up. It was likely too far south for any type of fallout and the storms may have prevented an influx from further south. Central and eastern PA experienced moderate to heavy migration last night and there should be many new arrivals.
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Regional Overview The radar was lively again with migrating birds as they took advantage of south winds for the first time in days. A front moved through the region overnight, bringing the possibility of fallout conditions as it moved through Ohio before midnight and Pennsylvania in the early morning hours. Generally the rule of thumb is that areas that experienced the rain after midnight have the best chance to see some fallout, but I think it is likely that some birds were still grounded by the earlier rain and will be around this morning. Pennsylvania Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation. THe precipitation moved through Pennsylvania after midnight, and migration was going pretty strong when it moved through. This looks great for creating some localized concentrations of migrants that were stopped mid-flight (ie. fallout!).
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The Nemesis Bird team arrived in nw Ohio yesterday and has been birding up a storm. Highlights so far have included killer close up looks at a Sora and a 20 warbler morning from the car while we waited for the rain to let up. Look for more stories as we manage to pull ourselves away from all the birds! For now let this short shot I took through my bins of the Sora suffice.
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Despite some north winds last night, birds decided to migrate. It is that time of year when they realize that they need to head north to their breeding grounds despite the conditions. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland all experienced an influx of birds overnight and I would expect many of the warbler species to be widespread, as well as other migrants such as orioles, tanagers and grosbeaks. Conditions should actually be much better during the rest of the week for migrants as temperatures rise and winds stay from the south. One interesting aspect will be the scattered storms that look like they will be moving through the entire region, which could set us up for some fallout conditions. Radar is back up so check the days post with radar.
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