[Birdtalk] Night Migrants and Raptor Movement

[Tim Avery]

Spent last night camped out south of Strawberry Reservoir at 9400'.  It was a
clear night with a slight southerly breeze that was on and off.  Almost
immediately after it got dark I began hearing night migrants pass overhead.  I
had trouble sleeping ans ende dup spending most of the night listening for
birds.  In all I tallied about 70 flight calls over 5 hours, averaging out to
about 14 calls an hour, by far the greatest density I have had in Utah while
listening.  Based off what I have learned from birders in Colorado and Colby:

I gathered that about 20-30 of the birds were YELLOW WARBLERS with an,
"emphatic, electric 'zzzt'" call (quote from Ted Floyd);

15-20 of the birds were likely BREWER'S SPARROWS, with a flat "zeet" call;

10 or so CHIPPING SPARROWS with a clear, rising "zees" call;

and several other warblers and sparrows, one of which I believe was a
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER with a "zyew" whistle.

There were also several "zips" which sounded warblerish and could have been
Townsend's Warbler, but I am not sure.

Today around NOON, from a ridge in the same area there was definitely some
raptor movement.  In 10 minutes I saw the following:

15 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 NORTHERN GOSHAWK

Cheers

Tim
Salt Lake City, UT
tanager at timaverybirding.com
http://www.timaverybirding.com
http://www.timavery.com