[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by Toe on 10:27:16 09/16/11
In Reply to: Fall Migration Article posted by Mike Baranski
That's a good article that points out the obvious. There are still many good days when conditions don't look optimal, and many days when they are and you wonder "so, where are all the birds?" No one can deny the connection to weather and wildlife. It goes way beyond birds. As a fisherman, I lived my life glued to the weatehr reports. Not just to predict the sea conditions, but fish movements. For example, first strong cold front in October = Mutton Snapper running! Winds out of the NW = shrimping goes dead!
The best example of weather and fall migration I can give was back in October of 2004. That year us south FL folks benefited from the poor luck of central Florida in that 4 hurricanes hit the central part of the stare and cleared the trees of leaves, fruit, and bugs. In addition, the week leading up to the weekend of Oct. 16 saw a cold front moving it's way down the state, with strong SW winds for several days here in south Florida ahead of the front. The birds were being sandwiched between a front pushing them south, strong headwinds keeping them from making the jump over water, and a lack of food in the central part of the state. On Saturday the 16th I experienced Warbler Valhalla at Royal Palm in ENP. Thousands of birds, and I'm being conservative. That night the winds shifted out of the north and the skies cleared. The following day I only had 8 warbler species in very small numbers, and they were all the hum-drum ones. I should have gone after the muttons that day.
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]