Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 13:39:44 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Shireen Gonzaga Subject: late migration MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This was posted to the Delaware bird list, and it might help explain the late migration .... ------------------------------------------------------ From: "Dudley, Adam J" To: de-birds@Princeton.EDU I have just returned from a week's vacation to Florida and the Keys. Whilst at the Keys I experienced what is called "fall" conditions where I'm from in the UK - i.e. strong weather systems which ground migrants. I have experienced this in the UK a couple of times, but nothing like the scale I saw in the Keys. Every single beach that we visited on the lower keys was literally covered with warblers which were so exhausted they did not move as you approached them. Many were dead or dying but there were also many that were actively feeding on insects in seaweed etc. The most common species were redstarts, both waterthrushes, common yellowthroats, black-throated blue, pine, blackpoll and prairie warblers. There were also hundreds of bobolinks and great crested flycatcherers either on the beach or in the surrounding trees. Not only were the beaches full of birds but also places like the main street in Key West had redstarts and black-throated blue warblers on the sidewalks and flying up against insect mesh at bars! There were also huge numbers of waders which I also suspect were struggling to head north. Perhaps this 2-week period of sustained strong northerly winds in Florida and the Caribbean is the reason why migration is late here in DE? It will be interesting to see how this may affect the breeding season this year since many birds will be late onto their breeding grounds (or if the migration casualty rate is higher than normal.) Adam Dudley AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Wilmington DE -- Shireen Gonzaga Baltimore, MD whimbrel@home.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================