I got my first Veery of the year. To be exact, my microphone and automatic detector got its first Veery of the year. It passed over the house at 10:55 PM on May 8th. I have yet to see one or hear one on the ground.

The Veery nocturnal call note–a descending “veer”- really stands out after hearing so many Hermit Thrush call notes in the preceding days. It’s a shorter, rougher-sounding call with more inflection in it than the Hermit Thrush’s plaintive ‘tew’ and its a tad lower as well it seems to me.

This is a sonogram of the Veery call note from over my house on May 8th.

Click here to listen to the Veery call.

For comparison, look at this sonogram of a Hermit Thrush call note from a week or two ago.

Click here to listen to the Hermit Thrush call.

Starting now, it will become increasingly rare to pick up Hermit Thrushes on the detector but I should start getting lots of Veery and Wood Thrush. Wood Thrushes winter in southern Mexico and Central America while Veery winter in South America.

The last thrushes to pass through will be the Swainson’s, Gray-cheeked, and Bicknell’s Thrushes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Bird Sounds, Migration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.