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Posted by Alex Harper on 10:25:00 04/05/11
In Reply to: More Musings on Migration- With a Gulf Coast Bias posted by Alex Harper
Well I should have checked my e-mail and saved some time. Bob Duncan beat me to it over an hour ago. His to post to brdbrains:
"Hi all,
Other than two hummers, at our migrant trap neighborhood in Gulf Breeze (extreme w. Panhandle) this morning, nothing came in yesterday or overnight, Bob Sargent's report from Ft. Morgan had similar results yesterday. Brisk south winds kept migrants zooming over the coast non-stop.
The squall line hit the Pensacola area around midnight. This morning we have clear skies and NW winds @25 mph. So did migrants leave Yucatan last night? And what will be the impact of this front, which is now in mid-Gulf? Winds in Merida and Progreso, in N. Yucatan, were SE 12 - 18 mph from about 7 to 8 pm local time, giving migrants a favorable wind to launch across the Gulf, plus fair skies. Here's a question that's been nagging me for some time. IF the winds have too much of a southerly component (that is, SE or SSE and not ESE or E) can the birds "sense" an isobaric shift that will occur as they move north through the Gulf? In other words, can they "feel" that winds will veer to the SW and NW well into their flight? It will be very interesting to see if, when and where birds put down from this front. Did they in fact take off last night?
One thing is certain, whatever we get up here will not be from circum-Gulf or "shortcut" NW Gulf migrants. David Dortch reported that yesterday at 4:30 pm the front had come through S. TX with winds 30 - 45 mph out of the north. This should have shut down migration out of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz cold. So, I think any birds arriving here will have come from Yucatan and in the case of peninsula FL, either Yucatan, the West Indies or both.
It will be interesting to see who gets what and where. As far as the AL-FL coasts are concerned, I think any birds arriving will be late, not on the usual late morning-early afternoon schedule, but maybe late afternoon or even overnight. Birding might be best tomorrow morning. Any thoughts on this?
Bob Duncan"
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