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Weather and Songbird Migration Dear Students:
As you should know by now, birds trying to migrate north cannot fly with such strong headwinds, and must land.
I went out the morning of the 16th to find LOTS of Nashville Warblers and Black-throated Green Warblers, but not
much else. Other areas in central Texas also reported Indigo Buntings and Painted Buntings.
The southernmost part of the front was slow to move, so the Texas coast had a couple of days of rain, followed
by the north winds. They reported a spectacular fallout on the 18th, So what does this week offer? Another front moved through central Texas on the 20th. This front brought brief rains that night, but the winds behind the front were not very strong. I went out on the 21st, and the winds were from the north, but only 5 mph. This is not strong enough to force
migrants to land, and I did not see many birds, but I did see the first Warbling Vireo of the season.
Today (April 22nd), the skies are clear and winds are already back around from the south, so any birds that
did land had good flying weather last night and they continued their journey north. The front is bringing some
rain to the Ohio Valley and the east, but the north winds behind it are still weak, so it will probably not force
many migrants to land. Dr. David A. Aborn Background Information
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