News

Hurricane Helene is a dangerous storm predicted to make landfall on Thursday afternoon eastern time in the Florida Panhandle. Its circulation will entrain pelagic birds, displace nearshore species, and down overland migrants in many areas of the southeast and probably as far north as Tennessee and maybe even Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. We are following the progress of the storm and posting observations here.

Francine made landfall in Louisiana, now making its way north along the lower Mississippi River valley. Its circulation has entrained some pelagic birds, displaced some nearshore species, and downed overland migrants.

Hurricane Sandy’s epic, devastating, and predicted jog to the Northwest just prior to her New Jersey landfall was driven, largely, by a “rex block” or “Greenland block” – serious high pressure over the North Atlantic that, in effect, blocked the passage of…

We continue to track the Eastern promises that we highlighted in December, as this past weekend provided yet another tantalizing example of the potential fruits of such promises. A Fieldfare was discovered in Carlisle, MA and seen and photographed by…

Following last week’s post about the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the promise of European vagrants in North America, we thought it useful to note the current forecast from NWS Climate Prediction Center for the NAO index. The graphic below shows the…

Well, the Fieldfare you so desired for the holidays certainly may have been beneath whatever vegetation is part of your holiday celebrations, but not if you live in North America. Although a number of Black-headed Gulls and Tufted Ducks are…

So far, the negative NAO index that team BirdCast pondered late last year has yet to materialize with the strength of the October-November period. However, recent weather in Europe and some forecasts for the short term suggest the potential for…

January in the temperate Northern Hemisphere is not typically a time that most consider as falling within “spring migration.” Rather, local and facultative movements of  wintering birds and irruptive movements tend to dominate birding discussions, observations, and field trips. However, here…

Hurricane Delta is a powerful storm predicted to make landfall late on Friday on the Louisiana coast. Gulf of Mexico seabirds, as well as some nearer shore species and overland migrants, will be associated with the arrival and passage of the storm as it moves inland to the north and east.

BirdCast Regions For migration forecasts and analyses, we use the following divisions to represent the continental US. We use these regions because their component states have many migration patterns in common and because their component states’ proximity make for logical…

For those watching the arrival of Hurricane Lee, the BirdCast team though it might be useful to see a map of some of the species presently in the region predicted to experience impacts from Lee in the very near future.

During the week of April 19-25, several weather events set up excellent conditions for observing visible migration, mostly of wood-warblers, including this Worm-eating Warbler, migrating along Florida’s east coast. Our colleague Jacob Drucker reports on his observations on the ground!