Weather and Migration Dr. David Aborn March 8, 2005 Dear Students: Well, birds have started arriving! While numbers are not very large, some of the early spring migrants are showing up across the country. Most of the sightings have been swallows. Barn Swallows, Tree Swallows, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows were seen in California, New Mexico, Louisiana, and here in Tennessee. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird was seen in Louisiana, and a Louisiana Waterthrush was seen in California. The strong north winds I talked about last week helped force those birds to land. After a couple of days, the high pressure area moved east and the winds shifted to the south. That nice tailwind helped many of those birds continue northward. What's This Week's Weather Outlook for Migration? What about this week? Well, the weather is very similar to what it was last week. A strong cold front has just moved across the country. It brought lots of rain to the west over the weekend, while it was warm and sunny farther east. The front brought cold temperatures, rain, and snow to the east yesterday and today (March 7 and 8). The north winds over the weekend should have forced migrants arriving out west to land, while migrants in the east had good flying weather. Now things have switched. The west has south winds, so early arrivals should be able to migrate. In the east, any birds arriving over the next couple of days will find poor flying weather and be forced to land. Some rain/snow showers are predicted in the central and eastern parts of the country Wednesday and Friday (March 9 and 11), so it looks like birds may be grounded for a while. I am taking my Ornithology class (Ornithology is the study of birds) to the south Carolina coast this weekend, and I am hoping we will see some of those migrants before they take off again! Take care. David Aborn Click to enlarge The Next Weather and Songbird Migration Update will Be Posted on March 15, 2005. Copyright 1996-2005 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form