Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!bbn.com!mips2!granite!horvath From: horvath@granite.cr.bull.com (John Horvath) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Confused migrant? Message-ID: <1990Oct4.172011.1686@granite.cr.bull.com> Date: 4 Oct 90 17:20:11 GMT References: Distribution: rec Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc. Lines: 25 It sounds like you described the situation pretty well, except that the full moon probably had little to do with. I saw one PBS show that was discussing bird migration. They mentioned that early Radar engineers use to believe that there was some sort of fall weather phenomenon that happened at dusk that would cause extraneous beeps on their radar screens. Eventually they discovered that it was large groups of passerines that were apparently waiting in trees until dark and then flew up and over the tree tops on their migration. With the full moon the past few days, I was thinking about the possibilities of being able to see migrants at night passing in front of the moon. Especially after an incident 2 days ago when something thumped into the side of our house just before midnight. I'm pretty sure it was a wayward migrant too. I've heard that one common trap to migrants is flying into radio towers. The person who told me the story, claimed that the collisions were more frequent on foggy nights. I've tried to verify this story, but all the radio towers I could find, are enclosed in fenced in areas. ("Yes officer, I was just looking for some dead birds.") Speaking of migration collisions, in a local book put out by the BBC (Brookline Bird Club) a few years ago, there was an interesting article detailing the smashed species that were found around the base of the Pruditial Tower in Boston.