Date: 10/17/26 12:07 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Interesting warbler migration
Birders:
I birded the eastern extremity of the Pensacola Bay complex (and the Gulf Breeze peninsula) for 2 hours this morning, and was treated to a morning flight at a pace of 1000-1500 birds (nocturnal migrant species) per hour heading east up the bay shore. I estimate 90% Yellowrumps.
Other birds seen in the movement or in the vegetation included Y-b Cuckoo, Rose-br Grosbeak, Magnolia and Palm, Red-eyed Vireo, Catbirds, Harrier and Kestrel (four AMKR moved up the bayshore with the morning flight).
Some notes-
The best spot for skywatching to count these flights appears (so far) to be the Tom King Bridge on East Bay Boulevard, but the birds there are largely distant. The flight corridor this morning spanned perhaps a full mile width, with the bridge in the middle. This is also where I was standing to count the 3000 robins on the November morning last fall. There is no parking at the bridge, so I parked my vehicle on the nearby powerline cut.
The best spot for seeing the morning flight reasonably close and front lit, that I could find, is the parking lot of Dollar General at 6795 East Bay Boulevard, Navarre. Face toward the bay. I did not speak with staff there yet, but drew no negative attention. Of course, it would be thoughtful to buy something to show appreciation for using their lot (and who doesn't want a snack?).
The flight lines are likely to shift closer and farther from the bay shore depending on wind direction etc, on other days.
For traditional birding, there is a small local park consisting of trails cut below a brushy power line not far from the bridge. It is north of East Bay Boulevard, accessed from Avenida de Galvez just west of Galvez's X with Calle de Cortez. It has been birdy on my handful of visits to the area, including this morning. A yellow-billed cuckoo northbound along the cut missed me by inches, startling us both. On a couple other mornings I have also walked Galvez and its connecting streets birding (it has beautiful forest, lots of live oaks), and the folks I ran into (there are lots of people doing morning strolls here) were all friendly. They tell me they see bears in their yards and hood regularly (from the nearby Elgin population), and that their hood has a strange mix of very white squirrels amongst the normal gray ones. I did see one of these on a previous visit. This was very close to ground zero for Isaias, and the residential roadsides are currently piled high with woody debris awaiting pickup.
This is all about 8 miles east along the bay shore from where the Duncans reported that Jeff Madsen witnessed some eastward warbler movement this past week. I mentioned then that eBird had a 1000 Palm Warbler flight for the peninsula bay shore as well; turns out it was 10/14/22, and was by Jeff M as well. Here are his eBird comments for Palm Warbler that day:
huge flight of these birds moving west to east early in the morning, just over
treetop level, just streaming over in waves for over an hour. some stopping
on the grass in our yard to quickly forage, most kept moving, at times there
were 20+ individuals on the grass at one time. I'm sure other things were
mixed in, but all were warbler sized/shaped and most showed the white tail
corners when observed with binoculars
I tried hard to find Palms among the YRWA this morning, enough to be sure they were really YRWA dominating and not PAWA. Of course, there could have been PAWA mixed in (and other warblers; my sample for species composition was relatively small since it took me a while to find best spot for viewing).
Interesting by way of comparison, birders at South Pt in New Orleans this morning had a flight of similar volume (2000 in 2.5 hrs) that was dominated by YRWA and INBU. We are in the INBU peak, so I was a bit surprised INBU did not make up more of the Navarre flight today. Yellowrumps will peak in mid-late November (based on peaking then at South Pt).
I would love to hear any other observations of morning flight here or elsewhere in our region! Please post!
Peter Yaukey
Ferry Pass, FL
Peter H. Yaukey, Ph.D.
Departmental Chair and Professor of Biology
Department of Biological and Physical Sciences
University of Holy Cross
4123 Woodland Drive
New Orleans, LA 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
[cid:91D4B89B-2D58-4695-9437-0B7014880A72]
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Katherine Clemo via groups.io <kclemo54...>
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2026 6:57 PM
To: Albirds <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Interesting warbler migration
You don't often get email from <kclemo54...> Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> Oh, no! Lucy, I am so sorry about your wharf! There are so many idiots out there that shouldn't be allowed to own boats. What is your address? We were looking at Gulf Breeze on Google maps wondering where exactly your wharf was. I'm glad you all didn't get pummeled yourselves.
Katherine
On Fri, Oct 9, 2026, 5:15 PM Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io<http://groups.io/> <RobertADuncan...><mailto:<bellsouth.net...>> wrote:
We are being pummeled by the hurricane now. A huge sailboat (not ours) has hit our wharf and has demolished it. The boat is currently getting battered against our bulkhead. Nobody was on the boat, and nobody with brains would have anchored where it and 8 other huge boats did.
Lucy
That is VERY interesting, Bob. Hope you and Lucy and family are doing well. We missed our annual fall trip to DI and AOS meeting due to a planned trip that got cancelled. Hope to see you all in the Spring. Stay safe through Isaias!
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.
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