[Birdtalk] More nocturnal flight calls - big flight tonight

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

I've gone up to the Ensign Peak area several times since I last reported.  I
went up the night after I last reported and then again last night.  I heard
a fair number of birds each time...~15 birds per hour.  The COMMON
POORWILL(s) continues on the trail up to the peak.  Also, a COMMON BARN-OWL
called twice while I was up there last night.

But tonight was much different!!!!...

Based off of the current radar and the number of flight calls heard tonight,
I would guess this was one of the bigger flights of the season.  Highlights
were well over 100 migrant songbird calls that included YELLOW-RUMPED
WARBLERS, a probable ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, many WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS,
several probable SONG SPARROWS, a whole lot (100+) of unidentified warbler
and sparrows, 1 distant HERMIT THRUSH call, at least a dozen unidentified
duck flocks, CANADA GEESE, 1 KILLDEER, 2 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, and several
calls that have me absolutely shaking my head in confusion!  I decided to
mountain bike up to the crest between Bountiful and the Avenues in order to
try out something new and save time tonight.  There are three radio/cell
towers along the crest with the westernmost tower being the lowest in
elevation.  From about 7:30pm to 9:00pm I stayed on the ridgeline between
the lowest tower (~5500ft) and the middle tower (~5800ft).  Birds were heard
immediately upon arrival.  I estimated I was averaging a bird fly over every
30 seconds or less for the first 20-30 minutes.  Early on when there was
still a fair amount of light on the western horizon, I watched a bird
fly directly at me before turning backwards (I think when it saw me).  It
then looped back around farther down the ridgeline and continued on south
out over the valley.  Also, it was not very long before I heard the first
sound (the flapping of their wings!) of duck flocks flying over.  It was
pretty cool!!!  I'd guess on average there was a flock flying over every
5-10 minutes for quite some time.  At several points, I did hear a bird or
two vocalize from different flocks...I think one was consistent with
Gadwall/Pintail or some dabbling duck and then another really sounded like
Wigeon.  I guess that's something I'm going to have to work on.  It was also
at this point, when I heard the most perplexing call of the night.  It was a
flock of something (heard it coming from quite a ways away) that I have
absolutely no idea what the culprit was.  It sounded like a cross between
Horned Larks/crossbills/sterna terns/some shorebird call if you can imagine
that.  It's pretty frustrating to not even be able to assign a bird family,
and for that matter, a bird order to the call.  Anyway, it was bizarre, but
very cool!  Later on, when birds were calling from higher in the sky, I
moved up to just above the middle tower (~5800ft).  Here I heard more
sparrows and warblers.  I also heard a distant KILLDEER from here and on two
different occasions I had a SPOTTED SANDPIPER vocalize right overhead!!!
Eventually, I went up to the hill just to the north of the highest tower
(~6100ft).  I had numerous more 'seeps' and 'zips' here.  Although, bird
vocalizations were not as frequent as earlier in the night, birds were still
calling relatively close to the ground when I left at around 10:15pm.  The
bike ride down in the moonlight was beautiful, and surprisingly, not too
bad.  I only 'almost' bit it once.  Back at the car in the upper avenues, I
heard a flock of Canada Geese flying high overhead.

Something that has become pretty apparent is the amount to which these birds
are flocking.  Dozens of times tonight I would go a minute or two in
complete silence before 2-6 birds (often mixed flocks of warblers and
sparrows) would call in a 5-10 second period.

Please let me know if you would be interested in going out later this week
if the conditions look favorable.  It would be fun to start having a group
that monitors this kind of thing on a regular basis.  I would guess it's a
25-30 minute run or a 40-60 minute hike to the radio towers, which after
tonight is where I'd recommend to go.  It was pretty cool to be in a
position to hear ducks, shorebirds, and songbirds fly over.

I guess that's all folks.

Colby
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