In this new weekly (or almost weekly) feature Team BirdCast will be highlighting particular species that are departing, arriving, or just plain moving in very obvious (or not!) ways.
Warbling Vireo: the eBird map below shows the most recent reports of this species, highlighting the first migrants appearing in southern California and Arizona.
Red-necked Grebe: this species is once again on the move, with a new slew of reports (check out March 2014 compared to March 2013). New reports are probably composed of some early spring migrants but more likely numerous displaced and confused winter birds still finding many areas with poor conditions for open water in many northern lakes.
Drastic changes are afoot in the numbers of complete checklists reporting Red-necked Grebe in the Northeast. These are likely some early migrant birds and many new and previously displaced winter birds, as opposed to only displaced birds in the previous pulse of reports referenced last month.
American Golden-Plover: the eBird map below shows the March records of this early shorebird, a long-distance migrant that, in some areas of Texas in particular, has already arrived by the hundreds.
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Farnsworth, Van Doren
