Southern U.S. hitting peak migration

Dear Journey North Readers,

Spring migration is in full swing, and an exciting event happened on April 16. If you look at the weather map for April 16, you will see a cold front had come through the Gulf coast the day before, and there was a large area of high pressure right over the coast, which meant there were strong north winds. 

Many songbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico during their migrations, which is an 18-hour non-stop flight. As they approach the coast, they are already exhausted, and when they encounter those headwinds, they are too tired to fly against them, so they land very quickly and in big numbers. This is what is known as a migratory fallout, because the birds appear as though they are falling out of the sky. 

Many birders look for these fallouts because they can see lots and lots of birds (I have seen fallouts, and they are very impressive). One popular place for birding during both spring and fall migration is Fort Morgan, Alabama, and that was in the bullseye of the fallout. Some of the numbers birders tallied were astounding: 235 Eastern Kingbirds, 300 Red-eyed Vireos, 90 Wood Thrushes, 115 Orchard Orioles, 190 Summer Tanagers, 400 Scarlet Tanagers, 200 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 300 Blue Grosbeaks, and 400 Indigo Buntings!

A common way to study birds and bird migration is what’s known as banding, where people who have had extensive training (like myself) are given permission by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put up special nets to catch birds and put individually numbered aluminum bands on the birds’ legs, which is like giving each bird a name tag. It allows researchers to look at where birds go, how long they live, how their body condition changes, etc. There is a banding station at Fort Morgan that has been run for over 30 years, and on the day of that fallout, they banded a record 514 birds! I have a friend who was banding on the Mississippi coast that day, and while he didn’t catch numbers quite that high, he still banded over 200 individuals.

That high pressure moved off the East Coast after a few days, winds shifted to the south, allowing some of those migrants to continue their journey north. In New York, four species of vireos showed up (White-eyed, Yellow-throated, Blue-headed, and Warbling), along with Common Yellowthroats, American Redstarts, Black-and-white Warblers, and a Baltimore Oriole. Here in Tennessee, Wood Thrushes, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Ovenbirds, and Yellow Warblers have been numerous. Out west, birders reported lots of Lucy’s Warblers and Yellow Warblers, while Black-headed Grosbeaks and Ash-throated Flycatchers were common sights in California.

So can we expect another fallout this week? It doesn’t look like it. If you look at today’s weather map, there is a front that has stalled over the Southeast. That front is expected to bring on-and-off rain to the area, which means migrants won’t be going anywhere for a few days. There is good flying weather in the Midwest for now, but there is another front moving in, which will slow migration. Neither front has very strong winds behind them, so there won’t be any fallouts this week, but since birds can’t go very far, it is still a good opportunity to see what’s around. The weather out west looks pretty good, so many of those migrants in Arizona and California should be able to make good progress.

We are heading into the peak of spring migration in the southern U.S., and it is just picking up in the north, so it will be an exciting time for the next few weeks! Take care.

David Aborn
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Orioles have arrived!

By Jacob Swanson, Journey North

As we posted on Journey North's social media pages last week, it's normal for orioles to make us wait. As other birds make the trek north, orioles wait a little bit longer to soak up a little more of that Central American sun. It's not until mid-to-late April that they move en masse.

If you haven't seen eBird's weekly abundance map for the Baltimore Oriole, check it out. It's interesting to see how quickly orioles move from Mexico and Central America to northern breeding grounds.

Well, now that we've reached late April, orioles are on the move! By April 14, they had reached Missouri and Ohio, with Carol in Eureka, Missouri, reporting one late in the evening.

In Spokane, Missouri, Rick reported two on April 20, writing, "Was getting ready to set my first oriole feeders out for this spring, but they beat me to it. About a weekly early from previous two years."

Over the past week, we've received reports from the Upper Midwest, Canada and the East Coast as far north as the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border, with Lisa reporting a male in Groveland, Massachusetts on April 20.

In Shohola, Pennsylvania, Kimi reported a male, writing, "Seeing our yearly visitors always makes me smile."

In the Thumb of Michigan, Lisa in Caro reported a male on April 22 in a blooming apple tree.

When you see your first oriole of the year, whether it's this week or two months from now, let us know!