ID-FRONTIERS for September 25-30, 2005

Messages are displayed in the order they were received.  Subject  From  Date   Time   How do you census nocturnal migrants?   Ted Floyd    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   4:15am   An accipiter, Nova Scotia   Ian A. McLaren   Sun, 25 Sep 2005   7:33am   Re: An accipiter, Nova Scotia   Jeff Bouton    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   8:53am   Re: Italian Rail   =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ricar   Sun, 25 Sep 2005   2:53pm   Re: Strange Rail in Italy   Julian Hough    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   3:30pm   Orange-headed Mallard (or a hybrid?)   Floyd Hayes    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   5:23pm   Italian Rail   Jim Barton    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   5:28pm   Re: How do you census nocturnal migrants?   Gary l Felton    Sun, 25 Sep 2005   5:56pm   Re: Italy: strange rail in Po Delta, 23 September 2005   Menotti Passarella    Mon, 26 Sep 2005   9:49am   Re: An accipiter, Nova Scotia   Peter Wilkinson    Mon, 26 Sep 2005   10:49am   Fwd: Nocturnal flight call censusing   Christopher T. Tessa   Mon, 26 Sep 2005   12:14pm   Panama sound ID help   David Bradley    Thu, 29 Sep 2005   1:14pm   Fw: [RaptorBiology] IMPORTANT-- U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ATTACKS AND WEAKENS ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT   Norman D.van Swelm   Fri, 30 Sep 2005   4:57am   Paul R Wood/UK/TLS/PwC is out of the office.   Paul Wood    Fri, 30 Sep 2005   5:24am   The Florida Empid - and wing measurements   Ian A. McLaren   Fri, 30 Sep 2005   2:33pm

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Subject: How do you census nocturnal migrants?
From: Ted Floyd <tedfloyd(AT)ABA.ORG>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 4:15am

Hello, all.

I've been enjoying the recent summaries of good flights of noctural
migrants, being reported on many of the state and regional listservers.
Of particular value are the reports that give the actual number of
flight-notes heard, and I note that observers are more or less equating
number of flight-notes heard with the number of individuals passing
over. (For example, see Ross Gallardy's 24 September 2005 posting to the
PABIRDS list, and Christopher T. Tessaglia-Himes's 24 September 2005
posting to the CAYUGA list.) My instinctive reaction would be something
along the lines of "That's crazy." But, actually, I've had some recent
experiences of my own that would seem to bear out the assumption of
Gallardy and Tessaglia-Himes and others.

-- First, back on the morning of Monday, 19 September 2005, Steve Carbol
and Dave Wilton and I heard 1,000+ Swainson's Thrush call-notes over
Frick Park, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the hour before dawn.
Lots of repeats, I figured, and I downgraded the tally to 300+
Swainson's Thrushes. But then I reflected on the numbers of other,
less-frequently-detected migrant thrushes that we heard: 25+ Wood
Thrushes, 15+ Gray-cheeked Thrushes, 5+ Veeries, and 2 Hermit Thrushes.
All of those calls tended to come at the one-every-other-minute-or-so
rate. Assuming a single bird is within earshot for <30 seconds, and
assuming they're going straight over (but see below), then the one
flight-note to one bird equivalency seems justified. And a further
assumption: I'm assuming that an individual Swainson's Thrush, like an
individual, say, Wood Thrush, calls infrequently.

-- Second, yesterday morning, Saturday, 24 September 2005, Bill Schmoker
and I encountered a similar phenomenon, this time involving 100+
call-notes of Orange-crowned Warbler moving over Prewitt Reservoir,
Washington County, Colorado, in the half-hour before dawn. Lots of
repeats? Well, there were some less-frequently-detected migrants out
there, too, among them a few Wilson's Warblers and Dendroicas or
Dendroica-like things, a Swainson's Thrush, a Western Tanager, some
Chipping Sparrows, etc. And the same assumption as in Pennsylvania:
Since the one flight-note to one bird equivalency seems to work for the
"rarer" species, why not apply it to the Orange-crowneds, too?

Something else to ponder: Both at Frick Park and at Prewitt Reservoir, I
was wondering if we were set up at "confusion points"?--that is to say,
at places where the birds get disoriented, with lots of circling around
and backtracking and such. (In Frick Park, the birds were cresting a
large, dark, forested hill and then coming upon the lights of the city
of Pittsburgh; at Prewitt Reservoir, the birds were cruising in over the
Platte River floodplain and then hitting a large reservoir with all of
its various shimmerings and illuminations.) I'm guessing that many
popular sites for listening to nocturnal migrants are "confusion
points". Maybe, to get an accurate sense for what's moving over, we
should be out in the middle of vast, dull, homogenous habitats that
present the nocturnal migrant with no opportunity but to fly straight
over.

Thoughts? I hope it goes without saying that I consider none of the
preceding analysis to be definitive. (Check out the frequent occurrence
of the word 'assume' and derivatives thereof.) Still learning!

----------------------------

Ted Floyd

Editor,
Birding

American Birding Association
P.O. Box 7974
Boulder, Colorado 80306-7974

303-444-6363
tedfloyd(AT)aba.org

Please visit the website of the
American Birding Association:
http://www.americanbirding.org 

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Subject: An accipiter, Nova Scotia
From: "Ian A. McLaren" <I.A.McLaren(AT)Dal.Ca>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 7:33am

All:

Oddly, although there have been a score or more sight records of Cooper's Hawks
in Nova Scotia by reliable observers, there are neither specimens nor
photographs in support.  Thus, we are treading a bit carefully in asseessing
what may be our first thus suppoerted.

The bird was digiphoto'd (not via scope) on Seal Island, NS, at a distance, and
can be seen at:

        <http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlight100.html>

The bird in question is labelled "South Hawk" and compared with an obvious
sharpie ("North Hawk"). "South Hawk" seems a bit ragged; is this beginning
second cycle, possibly suggested by flank barring?

The "chesty" bulk of the bird, yet long tail,and narrow breast streaking,
whitish belly, relatively small eye cf. head, etc., seem suggestive. The
photographer saw what he though was its rounded tail, and this is hinted at in
one shot in which the tail end peeks from behind branches.

I realize this may be elementary  to people who see both SSHA and COHA
frequently, but we'd appreciate  views on it, either to the list (if deemed
worthy) or privately.

Cheers and Thanks, Ian

Ian McLaren
Biology Department
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS B3H 4J1

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Subject: Re: An accipiter, Nova Scotia
From: Jeff Bouton <jbouton2(AT)EARTHLINK.NET>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 8:53am

Ian and all,

The "North Hawk" is a fairly typical looking Sharp-shinned Hawk, uniformly
streaked breast real thin tarsus, etc., but the other bird I find very
interesting. Particularly, the appearance of strong barring on the flanks
mixed with streaks on the upper breast! In many years as a professional
hawkwatcher and bander here in North America, I've never seen a young
Cooper's Hawk with strongly barred flanks like this bird shows. If this shot
were taken in June/July then one could make an argument that these were
adult feathers coming in, but that doesn't appear to be the case here, and
of course in September molt should be long done.

So now I'm going to stick my neck way out here and suggest this is not a
typical look for any North American raptor. Could this be a
Sparrowhawk?....... I checked a couple guides and would expect the barring
to more prominent across the belly, and admittedly have zero experience with
this species. For those that do, can you ever get pale bellied sparrowhawks
like this? Would this be within the acceptable range of variation? It also
appears to be wide of breast and slight of head for a Coop. In a very quick
image search I found this image of an European Sparrowhawk that has strongly
barred flanks, streaked upper breast, and less prominent (light/thin)
barring on belly.
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic30-131-4.html

At any rate, I may be way off base here (I have a semipermanent seat in left
field, actually, so that doesn't bother me! ;), but this mix of strong
barring is suggestive enough that it is worth considering. I'd love to hear
more from others with European experience.

Best,

Jeff Bouton
Port Charlotte, FL
jbouton2(AT)earthlink.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian A. McLaren" <I.A.McLaren(AT)DAL.CA>
To: <BIRDWG01(AT)LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 10:33 AM
Subject: [BIRDWG01] An accipiter, Nova Scotia

> All:
>
> Oddly, although there have been a score or more sight records of Cooper's
Hawks
> in Nova Scotia by reliable observers, there are neither specimens nor
> photographs in support.  Thus, we are treading a bit carefully in
asseessing
> what may be our first thus suppoerted.
>
> The bird was digiphoto'd (not via scope) on Seal Island, NS, at a
distance, and
> can be seen at:
>
>         <http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlight100.html>
>
> The bird in question is labelled "South Hawk" and compared with an obvious
> sharpie ("North Hawk"). "South Hawk" seems a bit ragged; is this beginning
> second cycle, possibly suggested by flank barring?
>
> The "chesty" bulk of the bird, yet long tail,and narrow breast streaking,
> whitish belly, relatively small eye cf. head, etc., seem suggestive. The
> photographer saw what he though was its rounded tail, and this is hinted
at in
> one shot in which the tail end peeks from behind branches.
>
> I realize this may be elementary  to people who see both SSHA and COHA
> frequently, but we'd appreciate  views on it, either to the list (if
deemed
> worthy) or privately.
>
> Cheers and Thanks, Ian
>
> Ian McLaren
> Biology Department
> Dalhousie University
> Halifax, NS B3H 4J1
>
>
> Join or Leave BIRDWG01:
http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=birdwg01
>
> Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdwg01.html
>

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Subject: Re: Italian Rail
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ricard__Guti=E9rrez?= <gutarb(AT)TERRA.ES>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 2:53pm

Hello all

The bird face pattern looks, at first sight, such as that of a female Little
Crake (Porzana parva) that cannot be at all given the bird size and dark
underparts.

This crake is medium sized. Compare the bulk of the Mediterranean Gull in
the front with the diameter of the trunk where it is perched. The wood trunk
where the rail it is it's about the same size of that of the gulls. Those
appear to be recycled telephone poles of. c.20-25 cm diameter.

To me the bird is too big to be one of the smaller European Porzana
(P.parva, P.pusilla) regardless the plumage features. Besides, it looks
wrong in size even for the bigger P.porzana (which might be structurally
closer to Sora by the way). I can hardly see any legs in the photo but given
the height (related to the trunk) where the body 'is' we could expect that
this is not a Porzana but another longer-legged member of the Rallidae
family.

This photo recalls me that of a corpse of a juvenile Allen's Purple
Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni) found dead in Ceuta, Spain in 22nd December
2000, that showed a darker than the average in underparts bird (compare with
other sightings in S Europe of 1w Allen's Gallinule produced usually in
winter http://www.rarebirdspain.net/irbsr045.jpg for example, with paler
underparts).
I think this bird might be a juvenile/1w according to plumage pattern and
that, given size and structure, the option of Allen's Purple Gallinule
(P.alleni) in a rather juvenile stage should be taken into account.

Against that option is the fact that of the 8 mainland Spain+Balearic
islands records plus the 6 more of the Canary Islands, all fall from late
November - January in the Canaries and December (4), January (3) and March
(1) in mainland Spain, with all but one records in the Mediterranean coast,
so showing a pattern well out of this Italian record.

However, if what the photo seems to show as yellowish legs could be
confirmed and the wings falling shorter than tail ratio is also correct,
plus the pale bill and face pattern are as seems to be, this might well be
that species.

Anyway, in S Spain we've had a recent sighting (unknown origin) of a Lesser
Moorhen (Gallinula angulata) and the 1st African Crake (Crex egregia) for
the Western Palearctic was found a few years ago in the Canary Islands, plus
there are other records of African Rallidae in Italy so I would check any
African options with not only the photo but the author impressions in the
field.

All the best

Ricard Gutiérrez

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Subject: Re: Strange Rail in Italy
From: Julian Hough <jrhough1(AT)SNET.NET>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 3:30pm

Photos are such that it is difficult to make out much, but the size and 
shape are wrong for all the small crakes here in the US, and American Purple 
Gallinule doesn't fit the bird's shape and colour.

Perhaps Allen's Gallinule may be a better fit given the location, though I 
can't see too much in the photos to back up this suggestion...

Julian Hough,
CT, USA
jrhough1(AT)snet.net

www.naturescapeimages.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Norman D.van Swelm" <Norman.vanswelm(AT)WXS.NL>
To: <BIRDWG01(AT)LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [BIRDWG01] Strange Rail in Italy

> Menotti Passarella wrote: > This evening I was able to take a (poor) photo 
> of a (juvenile) Rail
>> walking on nets in the brackish Scardovary cove, Po Delta, NE Italy.
>> http://www.extracon.org/porzana
>> Any suggestions ?<
>
> Looks like a juvenile Purple Gallinule Porphyrula martinica to me, fleeing 
> for Rita! Lucky bird made it to Italy.
> Norman
>
>
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> http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=birdwg01
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Subject: Orange-headed Mallard (or a hybrid?)
From: Floyd Hayes <floyd_hayes(AT)YAHOO.COM>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 5:23pm

We've all seen some strange Mallards, but has anybody
ever seen one with a bright orange head? Photos of an
orange-headed male are posted at:

http://www.geocities.com/floyd_hayes/mallard

It looks so Mallard I'm inclined to think it's a
mutant. Or could it be a hybrid, such as Mallard X
Redhead?

Floyd Hayes
Hidden Valley Lake, CA

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Subject: Italian Rail
From: Jim Barton <redwingatfp1986(AT)COMCAST.NET>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 5:28pm

    Hello.  As I have previously pointed out, the apparent yellow legs of 
the bird are, I believe, part of the netting.  Do take a close look.

    In my judgment, the Italian rail does not have long legs.  I do not have 
an African bird book.  Does "Allen's Rail" have very long yellow legs, like 
Purple Gallinule? Adult vs. immature?

    Does Allen's rail show red in the face, as the Italian bird apparently 
does?

    I again ask whether the observer noted the leg color of his bird.

    Yours,

Jim Barton
redwingatfp1986(AT)comcast.net
Cambridge, MA
US Coordinator, Proact
campaigning for birds and their habitats
before it's too late
www.proact-campaigns.net

 

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Subject: Re: How do you census nocturnal migrants?
From: Gary l Felton <gljeinwv(AT)JUNO.COM>
Date: 25 Sep 2005 5:56pm

Ted:

We live in a small town in north-central WV that's app. 1800 feet up on a
ridge in the Alleghenies.
I'm usually up between 5:30 and 6 for work, so hearing nocturnal flight
calls is an almost everyday 
occurence from late August through early Oct.  I usually walk oustide as
soon as I get coffee to see
how heavy the flight is.  I usually make note of just the thrush species
I hear and if it's a heavy flight
I attempt to approximate the number of calls per second.  I don't have
the slightest idea how many
of the calls I hear are repeat calls of the same bird.  Bill Evans, or
Michael Obrien may be able
to elaborate on that.

I start hearing Veerys in late August, but by and far the vast majority
of calls I hear in Sept. are 
Swainson's with lesser numbers of Wood and Hermit (towards the end of the
month) and far fewer 
Gray-cheeked calls.  Being in a very rural area, there's nothing on the
ridge beyond the house to impede 
movement, so it's pretty much a straight shot on down the ridge.  So, it
stands to reason that the 
majority of birds I hear are straight-over fly-bys.

As a side note, I haven't heard one decent thrush flight this year and I
believe I saw a post by
one other WV observer who reported the same thing.  I believe that Bill
Evans has mentioned 
to me that hurricane activity can have a serious impact on thrush flights
and I have to wonder if 
increased tropical storm activity this year isn't the main contributing
factor to what I experienced.

Gary Felton
Kingwood, WV           

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 05:14:57 -0600 Ted Floyd <tedfloyd(AT)ABA.ORG> writes:
> Hello, all.
> 
> I've been enjoying the recent summaries of good flights of noctural
> migrants, being reported on many of the state and regional 
> listservers.
> Of particular value are the reports that give the actual number of
> flight-notes heard, and I note that observers are more or less 
> equating
> number of flight-notes heard with the number of individuals passing
> over. (For example, see Ross Gallardy's 24 September 2005 posting to 
> the
> PABIRDS list, and Christopher T. Tessaglia-Himes's 24 September 
> 2005
> posting to the CAYUGA list.) My instinctive reaction would be 
> something
> along the lines of "That's crazy." But, actually, I've had some 
> recent
> experiences of my own that would seem to bear out the assumption of
> Gallardy and Tessaglia-Himes and others.
> 
> -- First, back on the morning of Monday, 19 September 2005, Steve 
> Carbol
> and Dave Wilton and I heard 1,000+ Swainson's Thrush call-notes 
> over
> Frick Park, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the hour before 
> dawn.
> Lots of repeats, I figured, and I downgraded the tally to 300+
> Swainson's Thrushes. But then I reflected on the numbers of other,
> less-frequently-detected migrant thrushes that we heard: 25+ Wood
> Thrushes, 15+ Gray-cheeked Thrushes, 5+ Veeries, and 2 Hermit 
> Thrushes.
> All of those calls tended to come at the 
> one-every-other-minute-or-so
> rate. Assuming a single bird is within earshot for <30 seconds, and
> assuming they're going straight over (but see below), then the one
> flight-note to one bird equivalency seems justified. And a further
> assumption: I'm assuming that an individual Swainson's Thrush, like 
> an
> individual, say, Wood Thrush, calls infrequently.
> 
> -- Second, yesterday morning, Saturday, 24 September 2005, Bill 
> Schmoker
> and I encountered a similar phenomenon, this time involving 100+
> call-notes of Orange-crowned Warbler moving over Prewitt Reservoir,
> Washington County, Colorado, in the half-hour before dawn. Lots of
> repeats? Well, there were some less-frequently-detected migrants 
> out
> there, too, among them a few Wilson's Warblers and Dendroicas or
> Dendroica-like things, a Swainson's Thrush, a Western Tanager, some
> Chipping Sparrows, etc. And the same assumption as in Pennsylvania:
> Since the one flight-note to one bird equivalency seems to work for 
> the
> "rarer" species, why not apply it to the Orange-crowneds, too?
> 
> Something else to ponder: Both at Frick Park and at Prewitt 
> Reservoir, I
> was wondering if we were set up at "confusion points"?--that is to 
> say,
> at places where the birds get disoriented, with lots of circling 
> around
> and backtracking and such. (In Frick Park, the birds were cresting 
> a
> large, dark, forested hill and then coming upon the lights of the 
> city
> of Pittsburgh; at Prewitt Reservoir, the birds were cruising in over 
> the
> Platte River floodplain and then hitting a large reservoir with all 
> of
> its various shimmerings and illuminations.) I'm guessing that many
> popular sites for listening to nocturnal migrants are "confusion
> points". Maybe, to get an accurate sense for what's moving over, we
> should be out in the middle of vast, dull, homogenous habitats that
> present the nocturnal migrant with no opportunity but to fly 
> straight
> over.
> 
> Thoughts? I hope it goes without saying that I consider none of the
> preceding analysis to be definitive. (Check out the frequent 
> occurrence
> of the word 'assume' and derivatives thereof.) Still learning!
> 
> ----------------------------
> 
> Ted Floyd
> 
> Editor,
> Birding
> 
> American Birding Association
> P.O. Box 7974
> Boulder, Colorado 80306-7974
> 
> 303-444-6363
> tedfloyd(AT)aba.org
> 
> Please visit the website of the
> American Birding Association:
> http://www.americanbirding.org 
> 
> 
> Join or Leave BIRDWG01: 
> http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=birdwg01
> 
> Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdwg01.html
> 
> 

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Subject: Re: Italy: strange rail in Po Delta, 23 September
          2005
From: Menotti Passarella <menotti.passarella(AT)LIBERO.IT>
Date: 26 Sep 2005 9:49am

Hi all. I have added more photos on the album:
http://www.extracon.org/porzana
There are now 4 photos of a Little Crake (Porzana parva) photographed in N 
Italy on 10th Aug 2005; according to me there are striking similarities 
between this Crake and the mystery juv Porzana, e.g.:
- shortish bill;
- mantle and scapulars with ranges of white dots or whitish streaks;
- absence of spots on wings;
- whitish to buff supercilium;
- brown ear-coverts;
- whitish chin and throat;
- long greenish legs.
I have added also a less contrasted photo of the mistery, so now I think the 
white streaks in the upper parts are more obvious while I have also outlined 
in red the throat, chin and bill.
Moreover, check these photos out of another juv Little Crake photographed at 
Slimbridge, UK, on 14th to 24th September this year (similar to the Italian 
Little Crake but with spots also on wings):
http://www.birdguides.com/birdnews/pictures.asp?t=287677
Cheers
Menotti Passarella
info(AT)birdingitaly.com
www.birdingitaly.net

---Ricard Gutierrez wrote:
>>>>
Hello all

The bird face pattern looks, at first sight, such as that of a
female Little Crake (Porzana parva) that cannot be at all given the
bird size and dark underparts.

This crake is medium sized. Compare the bulk of the Mediterranean
Gull in the front with the diameter of the trunk where it is
perched. The wood trunk where the rail it is it's about the same
size of that of the gulls. Those appear to be recycled telephone
poles of. c.20-25 cm diameter.

To me the bird is too big to be one of the smaller European Porzana
(P.parva, P.pusilla) regardless the plumage features. Besides, it
looks wrong in size even for the bigger P.porzana (which might be
structurally closer to Sora by the way). I can hardly see any legs
in the photo but given the height (related to the trunk) where the
body 'is' we could expect that this is not a Porzana but another
longer-legged member of the Rallidae family.

This photo recalls me that of a corpse of a juvenile Allen's Purple
Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni) found dead in Ceuta, Spain in 22nd
December 2000, that showed a darker than the average in underparts
bird (compare with other sightings in S Europe of 1w Allen's
Gallinule produced usually in winter
http://www.rarebirdspain.net/irbsr045.jpg for example, with paler
underparts). I think this bird might be a juvenile/1w according to
plumage pattern and that, given size and structure, the option of
Allen's Purple Gallinule (P.alleni) in a rather juvenile stage
should be taken into account.

Against that option is the fact that of the 8 mainland Spain+Balearic
islands records plus the 6 more of the Canary Islands, all fall from
late November - January in the Canaries and December (4), January
(3) and March (1) in mainland Spain, with all but one records in the
Mediterranean coast, so showing a pattern well out of this Italian
record.

However, if what the photo seems to show as yellowish legs could be
confirmed and the wings falling shorter than tail ratio is also
correct, plus the pale bill and face pattern are as seems to be,
this might well be that species.

Anyway, in S Spain we've had a recent sighting (unknown origin) of a
Lesser Moorhen (Gallinula angulata) and the 1st African Crake (Crex
egregia) for the Western Palearctic was found a few years ago in the
Canary Islands, plus there are other records of African Rallidae in
Italy so I would check any African options with not only the photo
but the author impressions in the field.

All the best

Ricard Gutiérrez
>>>>

Rgds

--
Dominic Mitchell
Publisher and Editor, Birdwatch

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--- In WestPalBirds(AT)yahoogroups.com, "Dominic Mitchell"
<dominic.mitchell@b...> wrote:
> Forwarded from ID Frontiers - all feedback to this group welcome:
>
> >>>>
> Hi all. This evening I was able to take a (poor) photo of a
(juvenile) Rail
> walking on nets in the brackish Scardovary cove, Po Delta, NE
Italy.
>
> http://www.extracon.org/porzana
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Menotti Passarella
> info(AT)birdingitaly.com
> www.birdingitaly.net

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Subject: Re: An accipiter, Nova Scotia
From: Peter Wilkinson <pcwilkinson(AT)CLARA.CO.UK>
Date: 26 Sep 2005 10:49am

Hi All,

I was intrigued by Jeff's interesting idea that this might be a Sparrowhawk, 
as I have sometimes wondered how we might be able to distinguish a 
Sharp-shinned Hawk from a Sparrowhawk should a Sharpie ever be claimed over 
here.

I am pretty sure, however, that South Hawk is not a Sparrowhawk. I see a lot 
and band a few, but do not recall any as pale as this bird, nor with such a 
contrasting undertail pattern.

Are we absolutely sure the bird is an accipiter? I find it difficult to get 
any sense of scale, not knowing how big the tree is, but the bird looks 
quite chunky to my eyes. The undertail pattern pattern makes me think of a 
rather pale Broad-winged Hawk.

In any event, an interesting bird.

Peter Wilkinson
Wheathampstead, Herts, England
pcwilkinson(AT)clara.co.uk 

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Subject: Fwd: Nocturnal flight call censusing
From: "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <cth4(AT)CORNELL.EDU>
Date: 26 Sep 2005 12:14pm

----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----

Those subscribers to ID Frontiers who are interested in nocturnal migration 
and censusing migrants acoustically will be interested in this 
correspondence from Bill Evans for distribution to the list with his 
permission. By the way, his reference to "oldbird" is his homepage: 
<http://www.oldbird.org>.

Good birding!

Sincerely,
Chris T-H

>From: "Bill Evans" <wrevans(AT)clarityconnect.com>
>To: "Jay Withgott" <withgott(AT)comcast.net>
>Cc: "Felton, Gary L" <GLF1(AT)CDC.GOV>,
>         "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <cth4(AT)cornell.edu>
>Subject: Re: query re: nocturnal flight call censusing
>Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 14:32:40 -0400
>
>Hi Jay,
>
>To put it simply, if two people know each other's night flight call 
>listening skills and methods, then they can often make deductions about 
>the relative size of flights between listening stations and/or between 
>nights. Key word here is relative and it is also assumed the individuals 
>are cognizant of the weather, environmental noise, and artificial lighting 
>variables that can impact perceived calling rate. Of course, they need to 
>stipulate among themselves whether they are counting total calls or 
>interpreted number of individuals passing. In general chip note counts 
>(warbler and sparrow calls) are more accurate to compare (in inland NA) 
>because these species typically only call once or twice within earshot. 
>Individual thrushes may call more within earshot and there is considerable 
>variability between individuals so tallies of total thrush calls may be 
>harder to interpret [they are typically easier to count in the middle of 
>the night rather than during dawn fallout]. Certainly, if someone says 
>they heard a 1000 SWTH calls in an hour during the birds' descent you know 
>there were a bunch of them up there, but it most cases counting calls 
>during the descent flight likely at least translates to 10 times fewer 
>actual individuals (i.e., in this case <100 individuals). On the other 
>hand counting a 1000 SWTH during the course of a night, the divider may be 
>on the order of 2 to 5 (i.e., 200-500 individuals). So, there is no all 
>purpose divider out there. Historical studies by Ball (1952) and 
>unpublished work by Cochran reveal that individual thrushes have variable 
>night flight calling rates and everything suggests that different species 
>have unique temporal calling characteristics, though some may be rather 
>similar. That said, any veteran listening knows that amidst the variables 
>there is inherent consistency in the seasonal calling patterns, and that 
>if we could just establish the counting methods that a new survey 
>technique could be born.
>
>Based on Graber's (1968) hypothesis that birds are using calling for air 
>traffic control, one would expect that as the migration density of vocal 
>night migrants increases then it seems calling would have to increase 
>nonlinearly in order for birds to work out their flight spacing.  In other 
>words, the calling would increase at a faster rate than the number of 
>individuals as the latter number increases. This fits my field 
>observations on the frequency that individual warblers call in cases when 
>there are small flights versus large flights and no artificial lighting is 
>involved -- for example, a typical clear-sky fall migration night in 
>interior New England where one might hear 10-100 chip notes per hour 
>versus Canaveral National Seashore in eastern Florida where in the right 
>wind conditions one might hear 1000 chip notes per hour. In the latter 
>case it is easy to follow individuals and verify that they are calling 
>more frequently, typically multiple times while in earshot. In the former 
>case my experience is that I most often hear only one call per individual. 
>Thrushes, of course, are either generally more vocal or else it just seems 
>so because their calls are louder and one can monitor them for a longer 
>portion of flight.
>
>When birds are in congregation around bright sources of artificial 
>lighting on low cloud ceiling nights, navigational disorientation appears 
>also be a factor in calling rate. I've recorded individual birds in such 
>conditions giving rapid series of calls about a second a part. This may be 
>to some degree provoked by the cacophony of other individuals in 
>disorientation, but this calling factor may be somewhat independent of 
>migration density.
>
>The other factor to consider is the calling function of maintaining or 
>seeking flock or group contact (Hamilton 1962).
>
>Because we know nothing about the birds that are not calling, we can not 
>generally use acoustics as a direct measure of the total number of birds 
>flying over. That said, radar studies in the past decade have shown that 
>flight call tallies can be proportional to the number of targets detected 
>by radar at certain times of the year and/or for certain species (e.g., 
>Larkin et al 2002). Therefore, in some cases an acoustic record may be 
>used as an index to total migration density. Though one should also be 
>aware that radar is not a perfect methodology for detecting night 
>migrating birds due to potential "contamination" from bats and large insects.
>
>The way I use acoustic monitoring is partially as an index and partially 
>as a real total. The key is using consistent microphone design so the 
>"listener" or equipment variable drops out the equation. I set out lots of 
>similar microphones and then compare the calling phenomenon recorded by 
>each, factoring in weather, environmental noise, and artificial lighting 
>variables. For warbler and sparrow calls, I tally & compare total chips 
>between recording stations and then refine this further into a minimum 
>individuals passing estimate (Evans and Mellinger 1999). This latter 
>measure is based on conservatively estimating the typical time it takes 
>for warblers and sparrows to pass through the field of sensitivity of my 
>microphones. For my system, on a typical migration evening, and at a 
>location without significant artificial lighting (that might induce 
>circling),  I estimate warblers and sparrows will easily pass through the 
>microphone pickup zone in 1 minute. After I do the species analysis on all 
>the calling for a night, I go back and look at the temporal calling 
>pattern for each species or species complex.  If I get calls of the same 
>species within one minute of one another, I conservatively hypothesize 
>that they might be from the same individual. I then come up with a MIP 
>index for each species during the night.  For thrushes, my MIP time period 
>is 2 minutes. These MIP correction factors undoubtedly lead to 
>underestimation because they don't account for two or more individuals of 
>the same species calling within one or two minutes and the 2 minutes is an 
>overestimation of the time of passage through the mic field. But they do 
>somewhat address the problem of multiple calling and are a useful 
>comparative index along with the total calling index.
>
>For some species I can make a pretty good argument that, based on the 
>calling record, at least X number of individuals passed over a monitoring 
>site in a night or a season.  Multiple years of monitoring at certain 
>locations have revealed astoundingly consistent numbers of some species, 
>and this demonstrates the integrity of the counting method -- and also 
>that whatever the calling phenomenon is about, it has inherent elements of 
>consistency.
>
>A lot more can be said on the issue and I have stuff in prep that will 
>help address the issue for those monitoring with microphones. Several of 
>the papers on the oldbird website also address the issue.
>
>Good question and certainly one that would benefit from more research.  I 
>like your idea of following distinctive-sounding individuals to gain 
>information on calling rate. Very little such information has been published.
>
>Bill E
>
>p.s. Feel free to post any part of this to your listservs. I am forwarding 
>this email to several others who directed the question to me after you did.
>
>
> >
> > Hi, Bill --
> >
> > I'm the guy who did that article on your CD and flight call
> > monitoring work in Birding magazine a few years back.  I hope all is
> > well with you and your work -- I'd love to hear an update.
> >
> > I have a question, and with your permission would like to post your
> > answer to some birding listservs where there recently has been much
> > talk about how to accurately census nocturnal migrants.  I am
> > wondering whether birds call more frequently on nights when there are
> > more birds in the sky. And whether they call more when in the midst
> > of many individuals of their own species.  I.e., is there
> > density-dependence in calling frequency, and if so, is that
> > density-dependence species-specific or general across numbers of
> > birds overall?
> >
> > I have suggested that if there is such a pattern, one could
> > conceivably use distinctive-sounding individuals traveling in clearly
> > linear directions to determine average number of calls per individual
> > overflight, do this for many nights, and then correlate these figures
> > with figures on the overall frequency of calls per night, and come up
> > with a curve. One could then use this curve to adjust numbers of
> > overall calls heard in order to produce more accurate estimates of
> > actual numbers of birds passing over.
> >
> > It seems to me you must have done this kind of thing already.  Have
> > you, and do you have any data on this?
> >
> > More generally, how would you respond to the birder who asks, "How
> > can I come up with an accurate estimate of number of birds passing
> > over, based on the number of calls I hear?"
> >
> > Many thanks for any thoughts you can offer!
> >
> > Jay Withgott
> >
> > --
> > --------------------------------
> > Jay Withgott
> > Science writer and Textbook author,
> > Environment: The Science behind the Stories
> > Portland, Oregon
> > 503-892-1994
> > <mailto:withgott(AT)nasw.org>withgott(AT)nasw.org
> > --------------------------------
> >
> >

=============================================
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes, Research Assistant
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
Voice: 607-254-2418, FAX: 607-254-2460
<http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp> <mailto:cth4(AT)cornell.edu>
============================================= 

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Subject: Panama sound ID help
From: David Bradley <cavity_nester(AT)YAHOO.COM>
Date: 29 Sep 2005 1:14pm

Hi all, I have finally gotten around to sorting out my recordings from my
recent trip to Panama and have a few ID questions.  If you would like to
test out your skills then I welcome any suggestions.

Enter this URL into the location bar of your browser.

http://cavitynester.tripod.com/

Cheers,

David Bradley.

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Subject: Fw: [RaptorBiology] IMPORTANT-- U. S. HOUSE OF
         REPRESENTATIVES ATTACKS AND WEAKENS ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
From: "Norman D.van Swelm" <Norman.vanswelm(AT)wxs.nl>
Date: 30 Sep 2005 4:57am

Subject: [RaptorBiology] IMPORTANT-- U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ATTACKS 
AND WEAKENS ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

> Dear Raptor Biologists and Conservationists:
>
> I just received this important message regarding the U. S. Endangered 
> Species Act. A HUGE fight will now occur in  the U. S. Senate to try to 
> void the unacceptable and stupid action of the House of Representatives. 
> Every wildlife conservation worldwide has a direct stake in this matter. 
> Please read this carefully to try to understand what is happening 
> regarding this matter.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Donald S. Heintzelman
> Zionsville, PA
> USA
> donsh(AT)enter.net
>
> ********************************
>
> Dear Donald S. ,
>
> Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives hastily -
> and narrowly - approved the first major changes to the
> Endangered Species Act since 1988. This vote represents the most
> serious attack on endangered species protections I have seen in
> the nearly 30 years I have been working on these issues.
>
> As the debate on this legislation moves to the Senate,
> Environmental Defense is calling on leaders there to proceed
> more cautiously. In the days and weeks ahead, we will be
> enlisting your support as the fight in the Senate heats up.
>
> Today's vote in the House takes direct aim at our endangered
> species protections. It complicates both listing new species and
> implementing recovery plans for species already on the list.
> Unfortunately, the losers are the nation's bald eagles, ocelots,
> grizzly bears, ivory-billed woodpeckers and other endangered
> species. Learn more about the vote:
> http://actionnetwork.org/ct/O11mspd16ztY/
>
> The Senate has an opportunity to act more responsibly, and we
> urge them to do so.
>
> The Senate stepped between the overly-hasty House and rare
> plants and animals once before. In 1978, the House was roiled
> that the Supreme Court stopped construction of a dam in
> Tennessee to protect endangered fish. It passed a bevy of
> crippling amendments to the ESA. The Senate rejected virtually
> everything the House had done and the Endangered Species Act
> survived.
>
> Because the Senate stood strong, whooping crane numbers have
> increased ten-fold, California condors soar in the Grand Canyon,
> wolves roam in Yellowstone and black-footed ferrets are once
> again found in the Great Plains. The ESA has also helped restore
> our national symbol, the American bald eagle, from a few hundred
> pairs to over 8,000 pairs in the continental United States.
>
> If successes such as these are to continue, the Senate must
> again reject the overreaching of the House.
>
> In the weeks and months ahead as the fight to protect endangered
> species moves to the Senate, we need your help to win the battle
> there, so please stand by.
>
> Thank you for your commitment to protect America's natural
> heritage.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Michael Bean
> Chairman of the Wildlife Program
> Environmental Defense

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Subject: Paul R Wood/UK/TLS/PwC is out of the office.
From: Paul Wood <paul.r.wood(AT)uk.pwc.com>
Date: 30 Sep 2005 5:24am

I will be out of the office from 30/09/2005 until 03/10/2005.

I am away from the office on Friday 30 September, returning to the office
on Monday 3 October 2005.  I will not have access to my e-mail during this
time and will respond to your message when I return to the office.  If you
require assistance in the meantime, please call my secretary, Angela Moore,
on 020 7212 3029.
_________________________________________________________________
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or
taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.   If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any
computer.

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Subject: The Florida Empid - and wing measurements
From: "Ian A. McLaren" <I.A.McLaren(AT)Dal.Ca>
Date: 30 Sep 2005 2:33pm

All:

I thought I'd take a whack at the Florida Empidonax that was the subject of
indecisive comment a couple of weeks ago.   This is was stimulated by of a
similar large-billed bird found locally at about the same time, which appeared
to have a decidedly greenish cast to field observers (I was not there), but in
digiphotos looks more brownish, like "Traill's."   I believe that film
photographs (and possibly digitals too) generally fail to capture the
olive-greenish cast of flycatchers.   If you want to check this, google Acadian
Flycatchers photos and see for yourselves.

Field guides all reiterate the importance of primary projection, so I thought
I'd try to quantify this from the web photos.  (Absolute measurements, in e.g.
Pyle, show considerable overlap among species and of course are no help with
photos.)  There are remarkably few photos of Alder/Willows or Acadians on the
web that are adequate for this purpose.   I measured on my screen, from zoomed
photos, the length of the longest "tertial,"  S-7, from its greater covert tip)
and the length of the longest primary projection beyond it.   I then expressed
the latter as a proportion of the former.  Note, that I've assumed that wings
held at various angles should not distort that proportion if the wing itself is
reasonably flat, but I've avoided extremely foreshortened views.  Here are the
results:

Alder Flycatcher, n=7, mean 0.523, range 0.444-0.583, SD 0.047, 95% CL of
sample, 0.408-0.638

Acadian Flycatcher, n= 6, mean 0.755, range 0.688-0.813, SD 0.048, 95% CL of
sample, 0.622-0.888

I tried the same from four suitable photographs posted by Thomas Dunkerton,
which gives an idea of the "sample" error in a single measurement from the same
bird.

Florida Empidonax, n=4, mean 0.662, range 0.648-0.682

From this it would appear that the primary projection of the Florida Empidonax
is on the short side for Acadian, but beyond reasonable limits for Alder
Flycatcher.

Two other points:  1) the ratio of primary projection may appear longer on worn
birds, as the pale coverts tips are likely to abrade relatively more than the
robust primary tips.  (And in this respect, the Florida bird seems to have
pretty new coverts and remiges, which is right for Acadian);
  2) the ratio should be easier to get from specimens and might well serve to
discriminate out-of-range or difficult empids.  Are there any such published
ratios out there?

Cheers, Ian

Ian A. McLaren, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Biology Department
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS Canada B3H 4J1

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