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Hi All, Nocturnal migration over Amherst was steady this week and facilitated by good weather. Even when there were showers during the night, migration continued before, after, and sometimes during the rain. Total number of night flight calls was 1,210 almost the same as the total number the week before (1, 231). There was, nonetheless, a change in the composition of the flight from the previous week. In both weeks, warblers constituted 67% of the flight calls recorded. Thrush calls decreased from 24% of the total to 15% while sparrows increased from 4% to 13% of the total. The most common call recorded was again Swainson's Thrush with 167. Blackpoll Warbler followed with 153 calls and Magnolia Warbler with 134 calls. Common Yellowthroats appear lower than normal for this time of year at 68 calls. Chestnut-sided Warblers continue their unusually high numbers with 44 calls recorded this week. An acoustic monitoring network in New York State has informed me that they too seem to have unusually high numbers of Chestnut-sided Warblers. The increase in sparrow calls was largely due to a doubling of Savannah Sparrow calls over the previous week. Swainson's Thrushes declined from 284 to 167 calls between last week and the current week. Hermit Thrushes increased only slightly. Their peak normally occurs in the last week of September and first week of October. Rare or uncommon birds recorded this week were Vesper Sparrow (1) and Blue-winged/Golden-winged Warbler (1). This is the third week in a row that I have seen the spectrogram of this species complex in my recordings. I have not recorded it before this year so this appears to be exceptional. This could be due to the fact that my recording equipment is closer than it has ever been to the mainland of Canada, or that there is an increase in this species this year (which appears to be the case for daytime sightings), or that I am becoming more confident in my identification of species that are both rare and hard to distinguish with certainty. A summary list for the week is below. John Species/ Calls Swainson's Thrush 167 Blackpoll Warbler 153 Magnolia Warbler 134 Savannah Sparrow 97 Common Yellowthroat 68 Unidentified warbler of the genus Setophaga 65 Unidentified warbler 51 Black-throated Green Warbler 48 Chestnut-sided Warbler 44 Ovenbird 44 Bay-breasted Warbler 39 White-throated Sparrow 32 Unidentified songbird 27 Yellow-rumped Warbler 27 Northern Parula 22 American Redstart 19 Black-and-White Warbler 18 Unidentified sparrow 16 Hermit Thrush 16 Mourning Warbler 16 Blackburnian Warbler 12 Nashville Warbler 12 Unidentifed warbler of the genus Oreothlypis 12 Lincoln's/Swamp Sparrow 10 Killdeer 8 Canada Goose 7 American Woodcock 5 Cape May Warbler 5 Palm Warbler 4 Tennessee Warbler 4 Black-throated Blue Warbler 3 Chipping Sparrow 3 Greater Yellowlegs 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3 Veery 3 Wilson's Warbler 3 Canada Warbler 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Unidentified bird 2 Bobolink 1 Golden-winged/Blue-winged Warbler 1 Unidentified thrush 1 Vesper Sparrow 1 Total 1,210
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