Ken,
You may have been hearing a push of migrants, but I wonder if these birds could have been moving around locally. I've quite often heard cuckoos, particularly Black-billed, give nocturnal flight calls in midsummer (June and July) and I suspect these are birds moving locally. It's hard to know of course, but even in May I often feel like some of the cuckoos I hear overhead are locals. One big day trick for getting Black-billed Cuckoo at night is to listen in good breeding habitat. Whether that works because they are locals or because migrants call more often over good habitat I don't know, but it does seem to work. It would be interesting to do some summer monitoring to see what patterns emerge. best, Michael Michael O'Brien Victor Emanuel Nature Tours www.ventbird.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth Victor Rosenberg" <k...@cornell.edu> To: "CAYUGABIRDS-L" <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Cc: "NFC-L" <nf...@list.cornell.edu> Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 11:10:30 PM Subject: [nfc-l] migrating cuckoos I was surprised to step out in my driveway (Ithaca NY) this evening and hear 4 BLACK-BILLED CUCKOOS in 15 minutes (3 in the first 5 minutes). Maybe caught the tail end of a migration burst, but at least some mysterious migrants are continuing to move at night. KEN Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
