Tropical Storm Eta has been meandering in the Gulf of Mexico for some days after making landfall as a dangerous hurricane in Central America last week. The storm will strike the US (again – it hit the Florida Keys on Sunday) early Thursday, with potential for dangerous storm surge and heavy rain. Current forecasts see the storm move quickly across the Florida Peninsula and out into the Atlantic within 12-16 hours.
Numerous storm-driven birds have likely appeared in peninsula Florida, and in the coming 24 hours observers that can maintain appropriate safety precautions for weather and public health will probably find more Gulf of Mexico seabirds and some displaced waterbirds. The graphic below shows observations of a suite of species that has been and still could be associated with Eta’s second landfall, the first in the US. Note, not all individual and species observations appearing on the map below originated with or resulted from Tropical Storm Eta.
