[MDOsprey] Migrants Passing in Front of the Full Moon Migration
Phil Davis (pdavis@ix.netcom.com)
Thu, 23 Sep 1999 20:58:51 -0400
The moon is quite full tonight and on the 25th it will be fully ... full ...
If you have not tried this before ... you should ... it's really
interesting ...
Many years ago, Chan Robbins did a migration study by staying up all night
and looking at the full moon through a telescope. By counting the passing
migrants seen through the cone of observation he was able to estimate the
total number of migrants for that night.
Although I am a "night owl", I am not ready to try to duplicate his feat
... however, last fall I did set up my Swarovski and stared at the moon for
about 15 minutes. Yes, you can indeed see the silhouettes of passing
migrants. Furthermore, you can ID various flight styles, for example, the
bouncing flight of the warblers was clearly discernable from the heavier
more steady flight style of the (probable?) thrushes.
As I recall, I would see several birds passing and then I might have to
wait several more minutes, so don't expect a constant steady steam. The
physical position required is not very comfortable if you have a
straight-thru scope, like me, and having to compensate for the motion "of
the moon" (OK, actually the rotation of the earth) takes some patience, but
I highly suggest you give it a try.
Phil
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Phil Davis
home: PDavis@ix.netcom.com Davidsonville, Maryland USA
work: PDavis@OAO.com Greenbelt, Maryland USA
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