Date: 10/9/26 9:35 am From: Peter Yaukey <peter.yaukey...> Subject: Re: [NFLbirds] Interesting warbler migration
Bob and FL Birders:
Yesterday I had a late Purple Martin in Mobile while pausing to do a
skywatch enroute to New Orleans, which also immediately made me wonder if
it could have been Isaias- displaced trans-Gulf from the Yucatan, where
eBird shows there are still good numbers this late.
You may be aware there is a recent paper that reported that Golden-w
Warblers in Tennessee on their nesting grounds retreated all the way to
the Gulf Coast to avoid a tornadic weather system that was approaching from
the west. They returned days later. The researchers detected it
serendipitously because they had geolocators on them (their return was
quick enough that they would have not had a clue otherwise).
The observation of the warblers moving east along the Gulf Breeze peninsula
yesterday is fascinating, as is storm retreat in general. In New Orleans,
I have seen gradual movements of Mississippi Kites southward while I was
out looking for waifs after storms, making me suspect that I was seeing
kites returning to places fartther south from which they had retreated
inland for the storm passage.
An alternative hypothesis to consider for the warblers yesterday, might be
corrective migratory morning flight into the wind. South Point in New
Orleans has a similar geographical context, being on the south side of a
large body of water (Lake Pontchartrain), and the large flights there move
NE up the lakefront, characteristically on days with NE winds immediately
after fronts, with the birds flying into the wind. The best explanation
there appears to be that the birds are orienting into the wind to correct
for wind drift the night before, and accumulate along the shoreline into a
concentrated flow. So, eastward movement along the GB peninsula could be
birds likewise flying correctively into the NE (ENE) wind, accumulating
along the bayshore. I explored this possibility last fall on a few days,
and did have a flight of 3000 robins moving NE at the extreme east end of
the peninsula following one Nov front. I believe eBird also reports an
eastbound flight of 1000 Palms in a similar location on the peninsula a few
Octobers ago (can be found by searching maxima counts for the county).
Your home's position on the far west end of the peninsula might make this
invisible to you, because you would be at the very start of the flow
concentration process (likewise, the New Orleans flights are not evident
farther west on the shore where the accumulation is just beginning).
The spot in Mobile where I did yesterday's skywatch was Arlington Park, on
the west side of Mobile Bay, near the Downtown Airport (exit 24). I had
picked it on the supposition that a corrective movement into the NE wind
would bring birds to the western bayshore where they would funnel north.
On Tuesday (first morning after front) I only had 15 min to skywatch, but
had over 800 small passerines (660 Indigos) fly past heading north in that
time. Thursday was much slower (c. 40 birds in 30 min), as often happens
in New Orleans (rapid drop off a few days after front). Perhaps the
100-200 birds that JM reported yesterday included both corrective migratory
movements, and hurricane retreat!
As you say, Questins Questions Questions!
Good birding and stay safe today. I myself am hunkering down in Ferry Pass.
Peter Yaukey
On Thu, Oct 8, 2026 at 9:34 PM 'Lucy and Bob Duncan' via NFLbirds <
<nflbirds...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This morning Jeff Madsen, an experienced birder who lives about 10 miles
> east of the tip of our 20 mile long peninsula of Gulf Breze watched about
> 100 - 200 warblers fly EAST against a moderate ENE wind. Normally, birds in
> Fall migration are seen moving west in a circum-Gulf movement or a later
> trans-Gulf migration. The exception would be those headed for the West
> Indies. I rather doubt that a movement that large would be West
> Indian-bound birds this late in the season. Is it possible these birds
> "sensed" future worsening conditions to the west of their intended
> movement and it caused them to avoid further movement west? The hurricane
> at that point in time was still in the S. Gulf. That's mind boggling!
>
> This phenomenon occurred years ago when a hurricane was headed for
> landfall to our west but was still well to the south of the coast. Lucy and
> I witnessed a steady progression of Black Terns from our home as they flew
> east most of the day against a stiff east wind. That's what's great about
> birding. Questions, questions, questions.
>
> Bob Duncan
> Gulf Breeze, Fl
>
>
>
>
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