Birding by the Moon

Not only is migration very visible on NEXRAD Radar tonight, stepping outside Becky and I could hear call-notes of birds passing over almost nonstop. I quickly went back in, grabbed the spotting scope and put the moon in the field of view at 60X. Sure enough, within seconds I saw three tiny bird silhouettes fly through. Becky took a look just as several more quickly passed over the moon disc. Of course, you can’t identify them this way, but some people can do so by call-notes. It’s just as neat to think about which species are overhead flying their hearts out. I wonder where they’ll be by tomorrow morning?

Link: John Idzikowski's Fall Migration graph

Moon image © 2005 Michael Allen McDowell