For those out birding from the mid-Atlantic through New England and west to the Appalachians and the eastern Great Lakes, today was a wild day of birding. Several blogs have captured the ornithological events spawned by Sandy’s arrival onshore, and numerous meteorological sites have detailed the extreme devastation of the storm. As a final component to the set of forecasts posted here and posted on eBird, as the easternmost remnants of the storm spin off into the Gulf of Maine and the Canadian Maritime provinces, easterly and southerly winds may bring the last of Sandy’s bounty ashore along the northern New England coast. This area has already seen some storm fallout, and Wednesday will likely be the last day for the primary effects of this storm.
As forecast previously, Wednesday is also a day to check river valleys (Susquehanna, Delaware, and Hudson), bay shores, and even ridgelines for hurricane-driven birds to return to the ocean. Additionally, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario should continue to host hurricane waifs, possibly for several days – birders in these areas should be watchful for a potentially very interesting day! Furthermore, birders should pay close attention to the combination of hurricane-driven birds and fallout from the back end front that merged with Sandy. It may well be, for example, that the large numbers of Pomarine Jaegers present as Sandy made landfall and traveled inland resulted from a combination of displacement and entrainment from the storm and fallout from the back end front. More analysis will come in the next days on the eBird site – please check there later in the week.
