North winds + Sun + Pelee + post-rarity-bringing-weather = a chance for some good birds!
Understanding the "north wind effect" at Pelee in May is something I've yet to really understand. I've been there on seemingly fantastic conditions and seen little. I've been there on seemingly awful birding and had Black Swift
Yet one can't deny - north winds can blow rarities down the tip... The prototypical bird is Mississippi Kite, but I know recent years have also brought Swallow-tailed, said swift, Black Vulture, Swainson's Hawk, Ibis, Fish Crow, Pelicans (B and W), Cattle/Snowy Egrets, etc...
What else could occur?!
You get the idea.
If the winds are NW, I sometimes worry birds are missed from the VC as they hug the east beach.
If winds are NE - I feel better...
If it is cloudy, you miss out on a lot of the fun (very few hawks)...
If it's sunny - things can get really exciting...
Yet if it's sunny, sometimes the Lake breeze kicks in and turns the wind south...
If the wind is strong out of the N, sometimes low level lake cloud pours off of St. Clair and Huron (ruining everything)..
It's a work in progress, but things are shaping up well. IF there is a good batch of sun, tomorrow afternoon could be darn exciting there! (Could also be darn boring. Sometimes I think conditions need to be good first thing in the morning to make it happen)..
I have fairly low confidence in this type of rarity birding (hence, no rarity alert). But I thought i'd mention it. Good luck to those who are out there!
I've always thought about getting an Anhinga like this...
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