[NatureNS] Nocturnal Migration for the Week of 21-27 September

From: Stephen Shaw <srshaw@Dal.Ca>
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Thread-Topic: [NatureNS] Nocturnal Migration for the Week of 21-27 September
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Hi John,
The time series for individual species is interesting and presumably why you are collecting the info (?).  It looks from your website as if the Magnolia Warbler has risen to an orderly smooth recent peak and will now drop off, while the Am Redstart had an extended early distribution where you may have missed much of the migration, before sampling started 10 August, but it's a bit hard to see.  I checked your website and you have an instructive summary table there with daily numbers for each species (or a group of indistinguishable similars), but it 's hard to read easily because it's a table of numbers.   

Do you also employ a time display function --  a graph for each, made in a graphing spreadsheet like Kaleidagraph (KG, not that expensive), which would be easier to visualize? In KG you can plot one graph and pretty it up laboriously for your ideal presentation, then use that as a graph 'Template' to plot all the others painlessly in exactly the same format from one common spreadsheet (no I'm not a agent for KG, just use it -- maybe other programs can do the same).  Or you can put several species into one graph in different colours.  You can then plot or display several of the independent graphs lined up together using KG's 'Layout' function for comparison, though I doubt if displaying/printing more than ~6 to a page would be visually useful.

Is the idea that Redstarts migrate early because they have run low on their food species, or perhaps because they have now finished breeding/fledging, compared to Magnolia Warblers (or Common Yellowthroats) which may occupy a different niche/finish breeding later?  Is it known whether the individual migrating stats line up with what's known of the earlier breeding/fledging timing?

Very interesting, anyway -- thanks for showing the data regularly on NatureNS.
Steve (Hfx)   

________________________________________
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on behalf of John Kearney [john.kearney@ns.sympatico.ca]
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 4:40 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: [NatureNS] Nocturnal Migration for the Week of 21-27 September 2015

Hi All,
Nocturnal migration was light but steady throughout this past week over Carleton, Yarmouth County. A total of 817 calls, representing at least 669 birds, was recorded. Compared to last week, warblers declined from 86% of calls to 68% while sparrows increased from 8% to 24%. Thrushes remained the same at 4% of calls. The most common bird of the week was Common Yellowthroat at 117 calls, followed by White-throated Sparrow (72), and Yellow-rumped Warbler (63). The count of this late warbler was nearly triple what it was last week. Palm Warblers continued in good numbers (55) while there was a noticeable decline in the once dominant Magnolia Warbler from 329 calls last week to 55 calls this week. The unidentifiable to species Melospiza flight call also increased three-fold this week (38 calls). These likely represent mostly Swamp Sparrows at this time in September. The rare bird for the week was a Brown Thrasher at 6:41 am on 22 September. Uncommon warblers included a Pine Warbler at 5:41 am on 28 September. A summary table follows. Additional information can be found at: http://www.johnfkearney.com/Carleton_YarmouthCounty_2015.html.
John

Species, followed by Total Calls and Estimated Minimum Individuals
Common Yellowthroat   117       98
White-throated Sparrow          72        58
Yellow-rumped Warbler            63        40
Magnolia Warbler        55        46
Palm Warbler   55        46
Northern Parula           47        35
Savannah Sparrow        44        40
Lincoln's/Swamp Sparrow         38        30
Unidentified Warbler  38        38
Black-and-White Warbler        37        32
Unidentified Sparrow   34        29
Swainson's Thrush       34        20
Black-throated Green Warbler 25        25
Ovenbird          25        22
Blackpoll Warbler        19         17
Unidentified Songbird 17         17
Black-throated Blue Warbler   16         12
Unidentified Warbler Genus Setophaga           16         16
Chestnut-sided Warbler           13         9
American Redstart       10         7
Nashville Warbler        10         7
Chipping Sparrow         6          5
Bay-breasted Warbler  5          4
Blackburnian Warbler  3          2
Dark-eyed Junco          3          2
Pine Warbler    2          2
Prairie Warbler            2          1
Solitary Sandpiper       2          1
Song Sparrow   2          1
Bobolink           1           1
Brown Thrasher            1           1
Cape May Warbler       1           1
Hermit Thrush 1           1
Mourning Warbler        1           1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak           1           1
Wilson's Warbler         1           1
Total    817       669

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