[MDOsprey] Fwd: Storm Histories & Tracks (Ned Brinkley)
Miliff@aol.com
Wed, 15 Sep 1999 19:13:44 EDT
MDOsprey,
While I was in the midst of composing my post on the likely species, this was
posted to VA-BIRD. The below is forwarded from VA-BIRDS, recently posted by
Ned Brinkley who has done more research into Hurricane borne vagrancy on the
East Coast than anyone else, I think. I did a little clean up editing.
Subj: [VA-BIRD] Storm Histories & Tracks (Ned Brinkley)
Date: 9/15/99 2:58:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: birder6@JUNO.COM (Larry R Lynch)
Sender: VA-BIRD@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG (Virginia Birding)
Reply-to: VA-BIRD@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG (Virginia Birding)
To: VA-BIRD@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG
To: VA-birders
Fm: Ned Brinkley
There has been a great deal of discussion on the net and the Weather
Channel comparing Hurricane Floyd to the "Great Savannah Hurricane" of late
August 1893, a cyclone that occurred during a period of intense storm activity
much like the current period. It was also known as the "Sea Islands"
Hurricane, I think. Though there were few observers active at that time,
sizable
numbers of seabirds were noted in conjunction with that storm. From Beaufort
Harbor to Cape Lookout, thousands of storm-petrels (brown ones, species
unknown)
littered the beaches, observed from 30 August onward (see Auk 16: 247).
Likewise, the Isle of Palms, SC, was covered with dead storm-petrels. A
single brown storm-petrel at St. Albans, VT, may be connected with this storm
as well, though its date of discovery is not fixed.
Records of large storm-petrels in connection with the Sea Islands
Hurricane
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, 1, 08/28/1893 Washington DC Sea Islands
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, 1, 08/29/1893 Washington DC, Sea Islands
Leach's Storm-Petrel, 1, 08/29/1893 Washington DC, Sea Islands, W. Palmer
Leach's Storm-Petrel, 1, 08/30/1893, Washington DC, Sea Islands, W. Palmer
Leach's Storm-Petrel, 1, d, 08/27/1893, Isle of Palms SC, GH of 1893 Edward
von Siebhold Dingle
Records of Black-capped Petrel in connection with the Sea Islands Hurricane
1, 08/30/1893, Blacksburg, Montgomery Co.,VA
2, 08/30/1893, near Winchester, Frederick Co., VA
1, 09/??/1893, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Co., NY AMNH 98756
1, 08/28/1893, Verona Beach, Oneida Lake, Oneida Co., NYAMNH 458986
1, 09/??/1893, Pittsfield, MA
1, 08/??/1893, location not known specifically, VT
1, 08/??/1893, NH
1, 10/30/1893, Toronto Island, ON
1, 1893 Oakville, ON
Revised forecasts are showing a track more like that of Bertha of 1996, a
bit west of Bertha's track. That would mean devastation of the coastal
plains of Virginia and North Carolina, at minimum. We are boarding up and
stocking up in Cape Charles in anticipation of the worst. It is my
expectation,
based on records from Hurricane #4 from late September 1938, and Hurricane
Hazel of 1954, that this strong storm will be importing a number of
tropicbirds
into the interior, something that has not happened on a large scale for a
half-century. Observers on inland lakes should be especially vigilant.
Below are relevant records. Tropicbirds only seem to be entrained inland
in any numbers with very powerful cyclones.
Records of single White-tailed Tropicbirds in connection with strong
hurricanes, USA
09/25/1938, Jones Beach, Nassau, NY, Hurricane #4 (Category 5), sight record
09/22/1938, Easthampton, Suffolk, NY, Hurricane #4, specimen
10/03/1938, Easthampton, Suffolk, NY Hurricane #4, specimen
09/??/1938 Adamant, VT, Hurricane #4, specimen
09/??/1938, North Danville, VT, Hurricane #4, specimen
09/22/1938, Woodstock, VT, Hurricane #4, specimen, subspecies catesbyi
10/15/1954, Staunton, Augusta Co., VA, Hurricane Hazel, Specimen mounted
(Lynchburg Coll)
10/16/1954, Gettysburg, PA Hurricane Hazel, specimen lost, Phaethon sp.
10/16/1954, Nanticoke, Luzerne Co., PA, Hurricane Hazel, sight record
10/26/1954 Ellisburg, Jefferson Co., NY, Hurricane Hazel, specimen: NYSM
17046
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA