Eric Masterson https://ericmasterson.com The Written Bird Thu, 11 Jan 2024 16:38:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Birding Cape Clear County Cork, Oct 2024 https://ericmasterson.com/1975-2/ https://ericmasterson.com/1975-2/#respond Thu, 11 Jan 2024 16:30:46 +0000 https://ericmasterson.com/?p=1975
BIrding Cape Clear October 2024
]]> https://ericmasterson.com/1975-2/feed/ 0 Great Thrush Flight Last Night https://ericmasterson.com/great-thrush-flight-last-night/ https://ericmasterson.com/great-thrush-flight-last-night/#respond Thu, 17 Aug 2023 21:01:15 +0000 https://ericmasterson.com/?p=1955 Nocturnal migration has been fairly quiet since I started recording on August 1, though there has been decent diversity with a good showing of early season Cape May and Bay-breasted Warblers. Last night (August 17) produced a great dawn thrush flight with more than 100 thrush call notes in four short minutes, mostly Veery but with some early season Swainson’s Thrushes. This four minute interlude followed 9 hours of near total silence, broken by only 16 warbler call notes. Listen to the thrush flight here. https://ebird.org/checklist/S147490536

https://ebird.org/checklist/S147490536
]]> https://ericmasterson.com/great-thrush-flight-last-night/feed/ 0 Star Island – six major rarities in nine years https://ericmasterson.com/star-island-four-major-rarities-in-five-years/ https://ericmasterson.com/star-island-four-major-rarities-in-five-years/#comments Mon, 24 Feb 2020 19:02:07 +0000 http://ericmasterson.com/?p=1892 What will 2022 bring? To sign up for spring or fall, go to starisland.org

]]> https://ericmasterson.com/star-island-four-major-rarities-in-five-years/feed/ 3 A video short on nocturnal bird migration https://ericmasterson.com/a-video-short-on-nocturnal-bird-migration/ https://ericmasterson.com/a-video-short-on-nocturnal-bird-migration/#comments Sun, 05 Jan 2020 20:51:35 +0000 http://ericmasterson.com/?p=1883 This is a lovely video short (five minutes) on nocturnal bird migration that I co-created with saltproject.org

It is being submitted to several regional film festivals. Please feel free to share with your friends.

]]> https://ericmasterson.com/a-video-short-on-nocturnal-bird-migration/feed/ 14 Birding and my Bionic Ear https://ericmasterson.com/birding-and-my-bionic-ear/ https://ericmasterson.com/birding-and-my-bionic-ear/#respond Fri, 25 Oct 2019 14:59:44 +0000 http://ericmasterson.com/?p=1875 I have been recording nocturnal migrants from my yard since the fall of 2012.  Although I have pretty good hearing, I need my sleep, and so in 2012 I invested in a parabolic reflector, a mic, and a recorder to do the work for me. Every morning, spring and fall, I check the voicemails to see who has passed overnight. Early in the morning of Saturday October 19th, one or more Black Scoters flew overhead en route to the coast from breeding grounds in eastern Canada. The scoter joins Long-tailed Duck and Brant which have graced my airspace during the dark hours. You can hear the recording at the link below (the first high pitched call is a song sparrow). Many folks think it reminiscent of sleigh bells.

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/184061361

 

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