Connecticut Warbler

Benjamin Van Doren, a student from White Plains, NY will be conducting a study on morning flight, mentored by Andrew Farnsworth of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this fall in the northeast. The aim of the project is to correlate the magnitude and direction of observed morning flight during migration with various environmental and behavioral variables (e.g., wind speed, wind direction, frontal passage and flight call frequency). Volunteers are needed to collect data on early morning flights of migrant landbirds at several locations in Connecticut.

Dozens of North American songbird species migrate largely at night. However, with some regularity, these birds also engage in extended flights during the early morning hours. Termed "morning flight," this behavior occurs typically after a large nocturnal migration, and the tendency for birds to head in a seasonally unexpected direction has intrigued ornithologists. This fall, a study designed by a local high school student working with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology aims to help decode the mystery behind this phenomenon - with the help of birders across the state.

Morning flight is unquestionably most well known in Cape May, New Jersey, where tens of thousands of warblers and other songbirds are counted moving north along the peninsula every fall. Closer to home, watching morning flight at Bluff Point in Connecticut can be every bit as spectacular. The ubiquity of this behavior under certain conditions further supports its importance as an integral park of migration, and, when these conditions are right, any place with a good view of the surrounding area can allow one to witness to the spectacle.

Leading hypotheses to explain the function of morning flight have included compensation for wind drift incurred during nocturnal migration, a return to land by migrants blown out to sea overnight, a search for stopover habitat to rest and refuel, and even simple disorientation or faulty navigation. All of these factors likely play a role, some more than others in certain areas, but this is a surprisingly understudied and poorly understood aspect of the avian cycle.

In order change this, many birders in the northeast are teaming up this fall to document morning flight as it happens and compare their observations to various meteorological and behavioral correlates, such as wind, frontal passage, flight call frequency and even the density and direction of nocturnal migration detected on radar. By correlating all of these variables with morning flight observations, the study will attempt to evaluate the plausibility of the aforementioned explanations. In addition, all of the observations will be archived in eBird, a huge publically available database of bird sightings, for anyone to look at.

Volunteers are a crucial part of this study. If you feel comfortable identifying birds in flight (identification to species is not important - "warbler/sparrow" works just fine) and can spare several early mornings spread out from late August to early November at a local area with a good view, please contact Benjamin Van Doren.