Hope everyone managed to avoid the cold today... I had delusions of grandeur in the rarity world, with plans of driving to Pelee to "hawkwatch" today... Well, I ended up working instead.. Which probably isn't a bad thing...
This is a major heatwave if it actually happens... Should be fun...
6-10 day temperature forecast for the USA... Looks like the last few days of April and early May will be the next major infusion of rarities, and then there will be no looking back... (just look at how long the last infusion of rarities kept us busy - with things like the Say's Phoebe being found several days after the "influx")...
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Stolen from another blog about our current weather (Jeff Master's):
Two major Nor'easters this season: one in October, one in April:
What's crazy about this Nor'easter is that it is only the second significant Nor'easter of the 2011 - 2012 snow season. The other major Nor'easter occurred October 30 - 31. It's pretty bizarre to have your only two significant Nor'easters of the season occur in October and April--and none in November, December, January, February, and March.
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Yes, this is now a weather blog...
After writing the first two sections, I took a look at the updated medium range forecast (3-7 days) for N.A. and saw some new goodies added to the outlook:
Day 3 (Apr 26) above... A juicy (not too strong), but juicy low pressure system right below Pelee... Sometimes those NE/E winds the day before a front/low can be good for high NUMBERS (with a sprinkling of lesser vagrants) of migrants at vagrant traps...
Day 6 (Apr 29) above... Another modest and poorly defined low, but similar to the results above. These aren't the weather conditions that (typically) bring us mega's like Fork-tailed Flycatchers or Elaenia's... But at the same time, having a healthy number of migrants to look at keeps birders happy and active (and that makes for better odds of finding the Elaenia that was actually blown in 7 days earlier and has been hanging around since then)...
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And now I'll post some actual birds/bugs before someone throws a pie at me:
All from Pelee on the 19/20th
Apr 19th! FOY babies
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Annnddd...... I almost forgot to post a pic of the Wheatley Slaty-backed Gull on Apr 20th...
I'll take the gull bait...
ReplyDeleteI have to say it looks pretty good for Slaty-backed overall. One feature that bothers me is how pale the tail appears to be. Most of what I have seen on the net shows a darker band on the tail, even on the really pale birds. Then again, it doesn't look great for Glaucous-winged Gull either. I suppose a hybrid of some sort is always hard to rule out.