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Posted by Toe on 12:38:46 04/05/13
In Reply to: Re: Matheson This Morning - Spring Migration with a vengeance posted by Angel & Mariel
The primary reason why birds didn't make it to South Florida is simple:
It's South Florida!
We are the forgotten stepchild in Spring Migration. Each spring is the same story. Birds dropping down in the Keys, the gulf coast getting slammed, birds to the north of us, but nothing in Dade except birds flying overhead. Check out the big numbers of Hooded Warblers they're getting around Pinellas. We'll get the typical Caribbean migrants in about 3-4 weeks, but geography makes big numbers of trans-Gulf birds very tough for us. There is just too much land to the west of us for the birds to drop into for them to make it across the entire state to get here. Larry birded Key Largo this morning and had 7-8 warbler species with nothing notable, and little else. By contrast, Key West is getting a lot of birds this morning, including big numbers of Hoodeds like the Gulf Coast. But Key West is out in the Gulf, on the same longitude as Ft. DeSoto, so you'd expect Gulf migrants to be much more possible there.
We can't just blame weather for our lack of birds in spring, it's location that is more to blame. They just don't come this way.
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