catching up with migration

PETER LEV (plev@home.com)
Tue, 27 Apr 1999 17:43:47 -0400


I spent several hours on Saturday, 4/24 birding near Lexington, VA, and
saw several passerines that had not yet made it to my part of suburban
Baltimore.  I saw Baltimore oriole (4), Eastern kingbird (4-5), warbling
vireo (3), yellow warbler (1), and redstart (1).  The question in the
back of my mind was:  When would these species make it to Baltimore? 
How much had I speeded up migration by traveling 4 hours south and west?

Sunday and Monday, birding at Lake Roland (my home patch) was slow.  But
today, on the regular Baltimore Bird Club walk, all of the birds listed
above caught up with me.  Baltimore orioles were plentiful (and there
were a few orchard orioles as well).  Kingbirds, warbling vireo, yellow
warbler and redstart made appearances as well.  So, on this particular
year, the interval between Lexington birds and Baltimore birds was 3
days.

Overall, the BBC walk counted 62 species, including 9 warbler species. 
Wilson's warbler was probably the bird of greatest interest.

		Peter Lev