News

Welcome to our first fall 2017 installment of the traffic report describing northeast US nocturnal bird migration traffic rates, as calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR),…

Pulses of early and mid period favorable migration conditions will bring similarly time pulses of moderate flights to many areas of the West featuring American White Pelican, Killdeer, Elegant Tern, Cassin’s Vireo, Yellow Warbler, and MacGillivray’s Warbler, while a significant mid period cold front will spawn moderate to very heavy flights in the East featuring Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Common Nighthawk, Least Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, numerous warblers, and Bobolink. As the remnants of Harvey plod through the eastern US early in the period, a new and currently strong tropical system (Irma) will be approaching the southeastern US by the end of the period; BirdCast will be watching closely.

Continental Summary Light to moderate movements were the norm in the West and featured American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Wilson’s Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and Green-tailed Towhee, while moderate to locally heavy flights were common in the East and featured…

Hurricane Harvey came ashore on the central Texas coast last week with an almost unimaginable combination of destructive winds and rain. Team BirdCast has been tracking the avian fallout from this storm, perhaps a brief respite for some to escape from the horrible scenes of the devastation in Harvey’s wake.

Hurricane Harvey’s path of destruction has seen unprecedented and catastrophic events in coastal Texas. Some birders have been out safely documenting what they have seen, and numerous typically pelagic or near shore species have been displaced far inland from the coast.

Team BirdCast monitors birds and their associations with hurricanes when we can, as they provide rare opportunities to study entrainment and displacement of birds. Such storms are dangerous in the extreme, no matter what intensity, and Hurricane Harvey proves no exception. This storm is coming ashore as a Category 4 Hurricane, very strong and very dangerous!

Hurricane Harvey is rapidly intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico. This dangerous storm is forecast to strike the Texas coast on Friday night or Saturday morning as a major hurricane and then meander in the immediate vicinity of the coast for several days. Entrainment and displacement of seabirds is highly likely.

Moderate movements featuring Northern Shoveler, Killdeer, Belted Kingfisher, Warbling Vireo, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Western Tanager are likely in many areas of the West, while the East will see scattered moderate to heavy pulses that feature Blue-winged Teal, Common Nighthawk, Least Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Summer Tanager. The dangerous Hurricane Harvey will bring typical Gulf of Mexico bound seabirds and near shore species to inland locations from Texas and Louisiana to Arkansas over the course of the week.

Light to moderate flights featuring Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-headed Woodpecker, Wilson’s Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and Nashville Warbler  were the norm in the West, particularly toward the end of the forecast period, while widespread moderate to locally heavy flights featuring Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, American Golden-Plover, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Nashville Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler were the norm for the East. The total solar eclipse of 21 August also featured some interesting “migration” behaviors, please see our post to check out the observations!

Conditions in the West are favorable for light to moderate migration featuring Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Red-tailed Hawk, Least Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, Yellow Warbler, and MacGillivray’s Warbler in the first half of the forecast period, while moderate to heavy flights of Wood Duck, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole will follow the passage of a frontal system through the East late in the period.

Olive-sided Flycatcher is another interesting species on the move that we would like to highlight. With western populations breeding significantly farther south than those in more eastern boreal forests of Canada and the northern tier of the US, the potential to examine patterns of migration progression and differences in migration progression between populations is excellent.

Upland Sandpipers are on the move (and they have been for a few weeks now). Check out our new map to show the progression of migration for this species!