Golden Triangle Audubon Bird Alert Update -- April 20, 2010

 There were again many migrants in Sabine Woods today (April 20).  This morning's assemblage of birds closely resembled that of the previous evening, suggesting that perhaps many of the birds were holdovers from the previous day.  There was no noticeable influx of birds during the day. 

There were 26 species of warbler reliably reported, with Chestnut-sided being the only "first of season."  Multiple male Ceruleans were again prominent throughout most of the day.  Other notable species included a first-year male Blackburnian, a male Golden-winged, and two Blue-winged/Golden-winged hybrids, one a more or less "normal" Brewster's warbler, and the other a Blue-winged Warbler in all respects except for yellow wingbars.  A very cooperative Swainson's Warbler was seen by many in the "Swainson's Hollow East" area.  Most numerous warblers were Worm-eating and Kentucky, with an estimate of about 75 of each present.  One could not walk in the western part of the woods without numerous birds of these species (and Wood and Swainson's Thrushes) flushing. Tennessee Warbler were close in number, with many birds foraging a mere two feet off the ground.  Numbers of Hooded were very modest by comparison! Blue-winged were is reasonably numbers, but Black-throated Greens were still scarce.  Although at least one Palm Warbler was seen, the species was not presnt in numbers today.

We have already noted the continuing presence of large number of Wood and Swainson's Thrushes, with numbers close to those of the abundant warblers mentioned above.  Two Veeries stayed around the drip most of the day, and there were a very few Gray-cheeked Thrushes around.  Scarlet Tanager, while present were few, but Summer Tanagers, still mostly males, were prominent.  Rose-breasted Grosbeaks came through again in the afternoon.  A Black-billed Cuckoo was seen two or three times.  Orchard Orioles were is somewhat increased numbers and a few nice male Baltimore Orioles were seen.  Two or three Eastern Wood-Pewees were present, and one or two Acadian Flycatchers were noted.  Vireo numbers were down from the highs of recent days, but a Warbling Vireo was again seen and we heard two reports of Philadelphia Vireo.  A western Kingbird was seen in the filed to the west of the sanctuary.

The weather over the Gulf is again very quiet.  There is a very shallow low pressure center in the central Gulf and almost no pressure gradient across the entire Gulf.  The winds are light and variable, both at the surface and at 3,000 ft, and directionally influenced by the low pressure center.  The winds at the Upper Texas Coast are also very light.  We see nothing in the weather to prevent birds continuing northwards tonight after their coastal stopover, and nothing to prevent birds leaving the Yucatan, except that departure from the Belize area seen unlikely because of disturbed weather there.  This would ordinarily portend a "normal' migrant flow with most numbers of birds stopping along the Upper Texas Coast.  However, predictions based on previous years' norms have not proven very accurate in the past few days.  We are beginning to wonder if the recent unusual prolonged easterly flow across the Gulf combined with the series of disturbances moving off the lower coast eastwards across the Gulf may have forced large numbers of migrants to make landfall on the lower Texas coast or even south of there.  These birds may then have been progressing at a more normal 100 miles or so a night round the coast until they reach where there normal flight path would have taken them.  This might explain the overnight arrivals we have seen in Sabine Woods that do not make sense in the context of normal trans-Gulf migration non-stop across the Gulf from the Yucatan Peninsula.

With thanks for reports from Terry Ferguson, Jana Whittle, John Haynes, Steve Dillinger, Gerald, Duhon and others whose names are not known to us.

John A. Whittle