[Birdtalk] BIG night migrant movement - Sept 1st morning

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

I was near the airport this morning in a loud and well lit place, and while
my focus was not listening for night migrants, I was outside enough to hear
the largest night migrant movement I've witnessed in Utah!  I'd say that
towards 5am there were birds calling about every 15-30 seconds on average.
It picked up towards 5:30am where there was a nearly continual stream of
migrants calling somewhere overhead.  There were just an incredible number
of seeps, and a few chips and zeeps, etc..

Highlights included at least...

3 WILSON'S WARBLERS...nocturnal call heard well...very different from
daytime call
5 CHIPPING SPARROWS...I suspect a frequent seep/chip call I heard often was
this species as well
2 LAZULI BUNTINGS...their buzzy (daytime, too) call
1-2 possible SWAINSON'S THRUSHES...don't know if they came from a something
else like building creaking, etc, but these were the closest I've had to
this species in Utah
several buzzy seeps...1 of which fit well with Northern Waterthrush, B&W
Warbler, etc. if I remember correctly...others were likely Yellow Warblers.
dozens of high thin 'seeps'
1 KILLDEER

The number of 'seep' calls was astounding with several varieties heard...I
suspect Yellow-rumped Warblers were the main culprit, but there were
definitely a few others that likely fit well with Nashville (most
likely?)/Orange-crowned(next most common?)/Virginia and MacGillivray's (?).
I will definitely get out later today to see what is exactly on the ground
to figure out ratios.  With it still raining this morning in Utah County,
I'd suspect these migrants were piling up somewhere between Salt Lake City
and there.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do it given my schedule, but I'd suspect
tonight will be another big night for migrants so let me know if you're
interested in listening somewhere.

Colby
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