A trickle of migrants

Birders across the Adirondacks await the arrival of warblers, tanagers, buntings, sparrows, thrushes…just to name a few families of birds. But recent weather patterns have allowed for some really good movements of birds over the past 2 nights. Look here. You will see blossoming “blue blobs” all over the eastern states-those are migrating birds flying over radar sights at night.

So, birds are on their way. In fact this morning I saw four species warbler while walking the trails at the Paul Smiths Visitor Center. One  that seemed a bit overdue is the Nashville warbler. But there it was singing it’s little heart out along the marsh-just a day or two late.

The going theory is that it seems a bit late for these arrivals but looking over the past weather patterns shows that there was plenty of good south wind blowing birds up into the Gulf of Mexico, from Mexico, but then bad winds and weather in the mid US shut them down, only temporarily.

Birding is a game of patience and patience is what it will take to allow these migratory birds to filter into our Adirondack woods.

Also….a comment here on the horrible oil spill in the Gulf. Most of the bird families mentioned here and many other small migratory birds are fortunate in that they are not affected by the spill, as they migrate at night and are mostly flying over the shorelines along the Gulf. However, the shorebirds(sandpipers, plovers) and wading birds(herons, egrets) along with pelicans, gulls, gannets, ducks, and other seabirds will, without doubt, be harmed by this spill. We can only hope for the best and then put the oiled birds into the hands of caring and helpful rehabilitators.

Photo credit: Savannah Sparrow-Brian McAllister