Date: 5/18/13 8:59 am
From: jugbayjs <JugBayJS...>
Subject: [MDBirding] where are the migrants?
The bizarre dearth of non-breeding migrants in the coastal plain continues...

I was birding locally at Governor's Bridge this morning and it was pretty birdy with respect to the site's breeders, but it was absolutely dead in terms of non-breeding migrants. This has been the case everywhere I go in the coastal plain in southern PG this spring. I was hoping to find a Black-billed Cuckoo today or a Gray-cheeked Thrush or Bicknell's (!), and of course was not expecting to find these but WAS expecting at least a few migrants to pass the time. Oh well.

I was out 4 times this week, and had a whopping total of about 5 or 6 individuals (other than Blackpolls) that were non-breeding migrants. Even the usually super abundant Blackpolls are thin here this year. I have not had more than 2 or 3 in our yard at one time this spring, but often we get inundated with them for at least a few days. They are normally everywhere you look around here in mid May, but I have only been finding one or two BPLWs at any given place.

Very odd; nearly all of the breeders are on territory now. I am thinking I may try to do my breeding bird survey route in Charles County much earlier than I normally would, as I may miss a good number of them singing if I wait until early June. All the vegetation came out very early this year, as did a lot of insects (at least around here), so I don't know what to make of this crazy year.

I wonder if the migrant passerine species that don't breed locally are on a different route this spring? Or maybe (I HOPE) they had extraordinarily good weather conditions, and most shot right past us non-stop to their breeding grounds. Another possibility however, is maybe a lot did not make it here this year, if we had high mortality losses this season. Many Maryland birders may not have heard, but the major cold-front that slammed across the mid-continent in mid-April resulted in an epic fallout during the peak of migration.

Remember the big snow event in the Rockies etc. in mid-April? When it hit the Gulf of Mexico (Apr 23) it was a disaster for migrants, and nearly the entire TX coast was plastered with one of the biggest fall-outs in decades (based on reports from many of the most seasoned birders in TX). I am sure many birds were not fortunate enough to make it. I happened to be there when it happened, which was very exciting but it was also ominous, the conditions were perfect for a major disaster. Weather on the Yucatan and elsewhere the day and eve before was ideal for a big departure flight, so it is highly likely that many birds were enroute when they got slammed while over the Gulf. It is possible this may have resulted in significant losses to numerous species. I hope not, but this is a possibility. Hard to say what is going on, maybe data on eBird will shed some light on this.

Regards-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD

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