Northern Parula. Mike Bailey/Macaulay Library. eBird S31455590
Continental Summary
Moderate to heavy flights were peppered across the nation and featured Sharp-shinned Hawk, Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, Northern Parula, Orange-crowned Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Fox Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco during this past forecast period, with more widespread and regional movements generally limited by a few extreme weather events in the Desert Southwest and the Atlantic Seaboard.
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Widespread moderate flights were the norm across much of the region to begin the weekend, gradually diminishing in intensity and extent through the beginning of the work week. Hermine’s arrival kept a generally easterly flow, facilitating coastal flights particularly in the mid Atlantic. During the work week, increasing temperatures and generally calmer flow away from the immediate New York and New England ocean coasts allowed light to moderate movements to continue. However, these were generally more local than regional. By Thursday night, an approaching frontal boundary slowly moving east through the eastern Great Lakes and Ohio River valley spawned moderate to heavy flights to its west while locations farther east were generally significantly less active.
Top Movers
Increasing
Species
Increase from Last Week
% of Checklists Reporting
Northern Parula
62%
5.4
Swainson's Thrush
70%
5.5
Magnolia Warbler
32%
11.9
Palm Warbler
149%
2.4
Black-throated Green Warbler
34%
7.3
Bay-breasted Warbler
38%
3.4
Sharp-shinned Hawk
56%
3.3
Blackpoll Warbler
51%
3.7
Black-throated Blue Warbler
34%
3.8
Red-breasted Nuthatch
25%
12.1
Chestnut-sided Warbler
30%
8.3
Yellow-throated Vireo
34%
4.2
Tennessee Warbler
30%
5.8
Philadelphia Vireo
52%
2.1
Merlin
34%
4
Scarlet Tanager
31%
4.8
Cape May Warbler
31%
2.9
American Redstart
15%
18.5
Wilson's Warbler
40%
3
White-eyed Vireo
30%
4.6
Gray-cheeked Thrush
148%
0.6
Nashville Warbler
30%
5
Common Yellowthroat
13%
19.3
Decreasing
Species
Decrease from Last Week
% of Checklists Reporting
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
-74%
0.6
Baltimore Oriole
-39%
4.7
Eastern Kingbird
-52%
3.1
Horned Lark
-50%
0.9
Purple Martin
-47%
1.3
Barn Swallow
-27%
12.6
Stilt Sandpiper
-37%
1.6
Baird's Sandpiper
-37%
1.5
Marbled Godwit
-59%
0.3
Tree Swallow
-20%
10.9
Short-billed Dowitcher
-34%
2.2
Semipalmated Sandpiper
-20%
7.5
Red Knot
-41%
0.6
Orchard Oriole
-97%
0
Little Blue Heron
-34%
1.2
Least Sandpiper
-17%
10.7
Spotted Sandpiper
-22%
6
Least Tern
-53%
0.5
Bank Swallow
-32%
1.5
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
-37%
0.7
Piping Plover
-42%
0.4
Caspian Tern
-21%
4.3
Cliff Swallow
-39%
0.8
Great Crested Flycatcher
-17%
5.4
Osprey
-12%
13
Veery. Jeff O’Connell/Macaulay Library. eBird S31486714
Gulf Coast and Southeast
Moderate to locally heavy flights followed the passage of Hermine across the region, with great extents and intensities on Friday night and diminishing returns thereafter. Note, Hermine brought a number of typically cyclone-entrained or driven species seabirds inland in Florida and elsewhere in the region (see this and this). The decrease in migration activity continued through the work week to the end of the period, as less favorable southerly flow and warmer and wetter air built into the region.
Top Movers
Increasing
Species
Increase from Last Week
% of Checklists Reporting
Veery
447%
2.2
Red-eyed Vireo
53%
19.3
Magnolia Warbler
148%
2.9
Ovenbird
113%
5.6
Common Yellowthroat
64%
8
Swainson's Thrush
1220%
1
Brown Thrasher
49%
13.7
Eastern Wood-Pewee
37%
14.6
Black-and-white Warbler
41%
10.6
Golden-winged Warbler
325%
0.8
American Redstart
33%
11.9
Northern Parula
33%
14.2
Kentucky Warbler
76%
2.1
Blackburnian Warbler
58%
2.8
Yellow-throated Vireo
40%
5.9
Acadian Flycatcher
55%
4.2
Tennessee Warbler
96%
1.2
Summer Tanager
31%
10.9
Cape May Warbler
150%
0.5
Worm-eating Warbler
45%
4.2
Chestnut-sided Warbler
46%
4.5
Pine Warbler
31%
10.4
Decreasing
Species
Decrease from Last Week
% of Checklists Reporting
Orchard Oriole
-58%
1.1
Pectoral Sandpiper
-52%
3.1
Mississippi Kite
-45%
2
Black Tern
-40%
2.3
Black-chinned Hummingbird
-45%
1.1
Wilson's Snipe
-77%
0.2
Barn Swallow
-29%
16.3
Eastern Kingbird
-30%
6.6
Western Kingbird
-58%
0.4
Whooping Crane
-97%
0
Least Tern
-31%
2.3
Upland Sandpiper
-49%
0.6
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
-60%
0.2
Caspian Tern
-35%
2.2
Red Phalarope
-84%
0
Common Tern
-42%
1.3
Sandwich Tern
-30%
3.5
Solitary Sandpiper
-30%
2.6
Spotted Sandpiper
-17%
6.7
Mourning Warbler. Nick Saunders/Macaulay Library. eBird S31431868
Great Plains
Away from light to locally moderate flights in the southern Plains, the weekend began quietly. But by Saturday and Sunday nights moderate to locally heavy movements took flight in the northern and central Plains with the passage of low pressure and strong storms. This pattern continued for several days though the middle of the work week, as a slow moving frontal boundary developed and pushed east, spawning moderate to locally heavy flights in its wake.
Light to moderate flights were scattered across the region for the weekend, especially on the western perimeter from the Pacific Northwest south and east through the Desert Southwest. By Monday night these movements shifted farther east, with similarly intense flights apparent in the northern Rockies and California through the Desert Southwest. The remainder of the period saw widely scattered light to moderate flights intensify and become widespread, with the greatest intensities and extents on Thursday night. Note, especially the flights in the Desert Southwest that were moderate and locally heavy. Also, note the passage of Newton on Tuesday night, which brought intense rain and some amazing pelagic vagrants to Arizona (we will follow up with a separate post on this subject).