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I saw an adult male Yellow Warbler in Spring plumage singing this morning in Lunenburg. This one did not seem to have migration in mind yet. There were no male YWAR fall plumage illustrations in the Peterson's or Sibley's field guides (apps) for this species. Do the males keep their bright colours year round? Nancy Nancy On 2014-08-21, at 3:02 PM, Ronald Arsenault <rongarsenault@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > Our observatons on Brier this week show a remarkable similarity to those made by John last week in Amherst. Redstarts > were very prominent while Chestnut-sided Warblers and Canada Warblers were encountered more frequently than expected. On the other hand, few Yellow Warblers were seen. > > Ron Arsenault > Temporarily on Brier. > > On Aug 21, 2014 11:16 AM, "John Kearney" <john.kearney@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote: > > > > Hi All, > > > > This year I am conducting acoustic monitoring of nocturnal migration over Amherst, Nova Scotia. I will try to report results on a weekly basis to NatureNS. This work is funded by Natural Forces Inc. and is part of an environmental assessment for a proposed wind energy facility. Since the acoustic work is being done remotely, I’m using battery powered recording equipment that doesn’t have as a high a reach into the sky (about 150 meters) compared to equipment that can be connected to an electric line (with a reach of about 300 meters). > > > > > > > > As for this week results, most flight calls were the early migrating warblers. These are dominated by American Redstarts (121 calls) and Yellow Warblers (63 calls). The number of Chestnut-sided Warblers (58 calls) is higher than what I have experienced previously in Nova Scotia. There were also unusually high numbers of Canada Warbler (28 calls) and Cape May Warbler (26 calls). The rarest bird was Prairie Warbler with 4 calls detected. A total of 515 calls were detected during the 7-day period. A list of all birds detected is given below in order of the highest to lowest number of calls detected. > > > > > > > > At the beginning of this migration season, I wish to highlight some main features of acoustic monitoring of nocturnal migration. > > > > Results are reported in terms of the number of calls and not the number of birds recorded since it is not possible to determine if a bird has given more than one call during the time it was recorded. > > > > Night flight calls are primarily identified by looking at the spectrogram (also known as a sonogram) since flight calls are very difficult to identify by just listening to them. For many species their night flight call is a unique call that they give only when migrating at night. > > > > The spectrogram of the night flight calls of some species are very hard to distinguish from related species. Therefore it is not possible to make identifications with the same certainty as with visual identification of a bird. With experience, one can say that there is a “high probability” that a particular night flight call was made by a particular species. Thus the results reported below should be seen as a list of probable species detected with an indication of the intensity of their migration by the number of flight calls detected. > > > > > > > > Nocturnal Migration Summary for August 11-17, 2014 over Amherst, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia > > > > > > > > Species > > > > Calls > > > > American Redstart > > > > 121 > > > > Yellow Warbler > > > > 63 > > > > Chestnut-sided Warblers > > > > 58 > > > > Magnolia Warbler > > > > 34 > > > > Unidentified Warblers > > > > 32 > > > > Canada Warbler > > > > 28 > > > > Black-and-White Warbler > > > > 27 > > > > Cape May Warbler > > > > 26 > > > > Unidentified Genus Setophaga > > > > 23 > > > > Least Sandpiper > > > > 21 > > > > Ovenbird > > > > 20 > > > > Bay-breasted Warbler > > > > 15 > > > > Norther Waterthrush > > > > 12 > > > > Golden-crowned Kinglet > > > > 7 > > > > Black-throated Green Warbler > > > > 6 > > > > Unidentified Songbirds > > > > 4 > > > > Prairie Warbler > > > > 4 > > > > Unidentified Birds > > > > 4 > > > > Northern Parula > > > > 2 > > > > Blackburnian Warbler > > > > 1 > > > > Blackpoll Warbler > > > > 1 > > > > Chipping Sparrow > > > > 1 > > > > Unidentified Sparrows > > > > 1 > > > > Killdeer > > > > 1 > > > > Savannah Sparrow > > > > 1 > > > > Wilson's Warbler > > > > 1 > > > > Yellow-rumped Warbler > > > > 1 > > > > Total > > > > 515 > > > > > > > > > > > > >
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