OT: Nighttime Bird Surveillance Network

Submitted by Gavia immer_MI on August 18th, 2023 at 11:25 AM

Shameless self-promotion, but a new project I've been working on, "Nighttime Bird Surveillance Network" launched today with Scientific American. The podcast series talks about the history of monitoring nocturnally migrating birds and how this sort of underground surveillance network is working to aid in migratory bird conservation. The remaining four episodes will air MWF until August 28 and you can listen anywhere you get podcasts.

I grew up in Michigan and many people fail to realize just how special the west coast of the state is for bird migration. The sheer volume of birds that uses the Lake Michigan shoreline to guide their way north and south is simply astounding (hundreds of millions!). I miss being there and witnessing it first hand. Maybe this will inspire some of you to check it out. If you really want to learn more, I suggest visiting BirdCast for a tech dive into keeping track of what's migrating over your house each night.

Thank you for your time and for not sending me to Bolivia, although the birding there is spectacular.

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MMBbones

August 18th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^

While we're on this rabbit-trail about birds:

Michigan-based Guardian Glass (formerly owned by Bill Davidson, who ran track for M in the 1940s) is now producing "Bird-First" glass, which reflects patterns in the UV region that birds can see but we can't.

Apparently nearly 1 billion songbirds a year die in North America by flying into glass. If you walk around any large glass building any time, you will find dead songbirds.

Large birds don't seem to have this problem, although they have their own issues with windmills.

It's not easy being a bird!

Joined: 08/28/2008

MGoPoints: 9991

St Joe Blues

August 18th, 2023 at 12:21 PM ^

Will definitely have to check this out. I've been using BirdCast for about a year. Sometimes the numbers it shows crossing Berrien County in a single night are staggering.

I live a few miles south of downtown St. Joe with a creek running behind my house. There's an amazing variety of migrating birds that will spend the day around the creek.

Joined: 01/08/2017

MGoPoints: 34028

True Blue Grit

August 18th, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^

Merlin has basically revolutionized birding, especially for the majority of people who can't easily ID birds by their sounds.  It's an amazing app that enables you to walk into your yard (or anywhere), have Merlin listen, and then you see all the birds whose songs it hears pop up on your screen.  It ties into Cornells huge sound library to match recordings with what the app hears.  As a birder, I can attest its very accurate.  Strongly recommended.  

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32447

Gavia immer_MI

August 18th, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^

A lot of monitoring is being used to fill in gaps in our understanding of which species are moving and when, as well as which species make specific calls. Right now, machine learning is taking the lead in automating so much of the work and is really helping move the field of migratory science forward.

There's a python based automatic detector called 'Nighthawk' that just launched from researchers at Cornell. Essentially, you can take your x hour nighttime recording and it'll detect and identify the birds that flew over. Of course, it's only as good as the data that's been fed to it so far. There are so many gaps in the map of training data that the developers are looking for people to submit their data, annotated or otherwise, to help fill in these gaps and make Nighthawk even better. The main developer is Benjamin Van Doren.

And of course, there's always eBird, which you've already referenced.

Happy to talk more if you're interested.

Joined: 10/22/2015

MGoPoints: 1586

Hab

August 18th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^

A former Navy LCDR would tell a story about how, on his first "cruise" as a midshipman, he was given a pair of binoculars by a superior officer and told that there was an unidentified B-1-R-D (bee one are dee) on radar that needed to be visually confirmed.  Apparently, it was a regular hazing ritual to send first-time midshipmen out without knowing what they were looking for.

Joined: 01/02/2015

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1WhoStayed

August 18th, 2023 at 2:03 PM ^

Dude - I definitely was going to neg you, but then you closed with this:

Thank you for your time and for not sending me to Bolivia, although the birding there is spectacular.

Joined: 09/07/2015

MGoPoints: 12139

Bohannon

August 18th, 2023 at 4:44 PM ^

World's tallest loon speaks the truth here, folks. I've known and followed the work of Gavia since making a migratory stopover on Center Lake, and I can assure you that he's the real deal! 

Joined: 12/01/2014

MGoPoints: 1589

oriental andrew

August 18th, 2023 at 6:02 PM ^

Coincidentally, my daughter and I recently started using the Merlin app from the Cornell Ornithology Lab, which is also behind Birdcast. 

We'll have to check out Birdcast also.

When the kids were younger, we would regularly combine craft time with bird time by making window art (like this) to put all over our windows and patio doors. We had dozens of those things on our windows, lol. 

Love it when the sandhill cranes rest in our yard. Craziest encounter was when my family and I were camping on a sandbar in the middle of the Wisconsin River. Heard a ton of noise early morning (maybe around 4-5am). Peeked out of our tent to see it completely surrounded by dozens of migrating sandhill cranes. It was insane. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

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