9.16.2011

On the other hand...


Blackpoll Warbler

From WISBIRDN (9/15):

From the lack of reports the past 2 days of any major fall outs I assume I'm not the only one who was disappointed on morning walks looking for migrants. The radar may be lit up but the birds must keep right on going. Maybe our neighbors to the south are experiencing all those "radar birds"? Oh wait, Chris West had a RB Nuthatch in his yard. That's a fall out for him! Wayne Rohde can't even get a Indigo Bunting in a corn field these days. What disappointment. 

Patrick Ready 
Not very birdy Stoughton 
Dane Co. 

What difference does eyeballing NexRad every night and morning make in my birding behavior and field observations? Regardless of what radar shows, I still go birding. I compiled some of my recent PBC creek corridor eBird data (first two weeks of September) and created two graphs. This first shows the total number of individuals by outing (red line) and the number of species for that same outing (blue line):



The second graph has the same criteria, but only warbler species:



Weather-wise, the past two weeks have been fair with strong and weak nights of migration, that is, according to NexRad. Considering the graphs and data, there really hasn't been a morning that didn't live up to its NexRad promise. Though there were some dips in warbler numbers by total individuals, each morning produced similar results. Disappointing? Not at all!

2011 seems about average for Sept. 1st - 15th:



Link: Weather: Fall Birding Basics at eBird

Blackpoll Warbler by USF&WS