Date: 5/11/26 9:16 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Very interesting Drew, thanks.
Do you have notes on what those specific dates were? If you are inclined to post them here, I will pull up and post the weather maps.
BTW, not wanting to short our friends in the northern part of the state, let me also say that concentrated morning flight also occurs in mountainous areas, so there may also be opportunities in the northeastern quadrant of the state for those who might be inclined to search for spots (or perhaps some are already known?).
I know of only one Appalachian site overall, the Allegheny Front Migration Observatory at Dolly Sods in West Virginia, where migrants pour through a high gap in a NE-SW trending bald-topped ridge as they attempt to move from its east side to its west side, barely skirting the ridge crest (so low that many are netted). These birds are southbound in fall, and (if memory serves) the flights occur on post-cold front mornings with NW winds, such that the birds appear to be using this gap because it allows them to avoid the full brunt of the head wind as they cross (compared to crossing over a higher ridge crest).
A bunch of other sites have been discovered in the mountains of the western USA in the last decade or so, the common theme appearing to be birds ascending a valley that leads to a gap across a blocking mountain ridge. It appears (?) that in some cases the blockage is in position to impede intended forward progress in their migratory direction, and in other cases is blocking a corrective movement that the birds are making into the wind (to correct for wind drift the night prior). The discovery of these sites has been somewhat shocking, as the general understanding had long been that passerine migration was much more dramatic in eastern North America than western N Am.
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 70
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
[cid:91D4B89B-2D58-4695-9437-0B7014880A72]
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Drew Haffenden via groups.io <andrew...>
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2026 8:51 PM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
You don't often get email from <andrew...> Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> We have had a couple of events on Dauphin Island of thousands of migrants moving west to east along the main thoroughfare mid morning in Spring suggesting the main landing area was the uninhabited and treeless far west and the birds chose to overnight or whatever remained of the night to rest and recover the continue east on rather than cross the last 4 miles to the mainland. That end of the island would not be a preferred landing area due to its treeless habitat, though well vegetated with dune plants and swale shrubs.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 11:15:17 AM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Can't help you there. We used to make several trips there in past years but although we witnessed the migrant flights, we made no records of its composition. That was before eBird days.
Bob
On Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 12:43:16 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Thanks Bob-
Intriguing- I believe I know that gas station. Nice view out over the marsh from behind it.
Since you are describing movements on the east side of Mobile Bay, that raises another scenario when the bay might funnel migrants. Namely, by blocking westbound circumgulf movements in fall.
I know you are keen on Yellow Warbler morning flight- I read your paper in FFN years ago when prepping my paper on South Pt. Have you visited that spot in early fall before, any thoughts on Yellow or Kingbird movement along the shore there?
PY
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 Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 3:38 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob Duncan
Gulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/10/26 6:51 pm From: Drew Haffenden via groups.io <andrew...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
We have had a couple of events on Dauphin Island of thousands of migrants moving west to east along the main thoroughfare mid morning in Spring suggesting the main landing area was the uninhabited and treeless far west and the birds chose to overnight or whatever remained of the night to rest and recover the continue east on rather than cross the last 4 miles to the mainland. That end of the island would not be a preferred landing area due to its treeless habitat, though well vegetated with dune plants and swale shrubs.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 11:15:17 AM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Can't help you there. We used to make several trips there in past years but although we witnessed the migrant flights, we made no records of its composition. That was before eBird days.
Bob
On Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 12:43:16 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Thanks Bob-
Intriguing- I believe I know that gas station. Nice view out over the marsh from behind it.
Since you are describing movements on the east side of Mobile Bay, that raises another scenario when the bay might funnel migrants. Namely, by blocking westbound circumgulf movements in fall.
I know you are keen on Yellow Warbler morning flight- I read your paper in FFN years ago when prepping my paper on South Pt. Have you visited that spot in early fall before, any thoughts on Yellow or Kingbird movement along the shore there?
PY
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 Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 3:38 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob Duncan
Gulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/10/26 6:15 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,Â
 Can't help you there. We used to make several trips there in past years but although we witnessed the migrant flights, we made no records of its composition. That was before eBird days.
Bob
On Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 12:43:16 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Thanks Bob-
Intriguing- I believe I know that gas station. Nice view out over the marsh from behind it.
Since you are describing movements on the east side of Mobile Bay, that raises another scenario when the bay might funnel migrants. Namely, by blocking westbound circumgulf movements in fall.
I know you are keen on Yellow Warbler morning flight- I read your paper in FFN years ago when prepping my paper on South Pt.  Have you visited that spot in early fall before, any thoughts on Yellow or Kingbird movement along the shore there?
PY
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, LAÂ 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
Â
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 3:38 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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, LAÂ 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
Â
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flightÂ
| | You don't often get email from <dhamm72...> Learn why this is important | |
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
You mentioned 4/27/23 in your email. Here are my two checklists from that day on the Ft. Morgan peninsulahttps://ebird.org/checklist/S135216722 and https://ebird.org/checklist/S135222534. I suspect the outer edge of that movement made it at least as far as Gulf Shores.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird listhttps://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos.  Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination,  do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline.  Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.Apologies for my verbosity folks,Peter YaukeyPS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco). PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
  Â
Date: 5/10/26 4:08 pm From: Katherine Clemo via groups.io <kclemo54...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] more birds incoming off gulf and potentially influenced by offshore rain
What fun!
On Sun, May 10, 2026, 5:16 PM Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan= <bellsouth.net...> wrote:
Date: 5/10/26 2:16 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] more birds incoming off gulf and potentially influenced by offshore rain
Warblers dropping in now, not present this a.m.
Bob Duncan
On Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 01:46:38 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
Yet again, blue haze echoes on radar over the Gulf seem to indicate an incoming flight. This time there are rain showers offshore, which could potentially tire them and induce landing on the coast, although I am not sure how effective that mechanism is for fallout (when compared to rain actually hitting them over land).
Another front (!) tonight, wind winds shifting to northerly around 10pm in Mobile. Not sure whether it will be early enough in evening to convince any fallout birds from today to stay with us overnight. If that does happen, there could be morning flight tomorrow. Â
Good birding,
PY
Date: 5/10/26 11:46 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] more birds incoming off gulf and potentially influenced by offshore rain
ALBirders:
Yet again, blue haze echoes on radar over the Gulf seem to indicate an incoming flight. This time there are rain showers offshore, which could potentially tire them and induce landing on the coast, although I am not sure how effective that mechanism is for fallout (when compared to rain actually hitting them over land).
Another front (!) tonight, wind winds shifting to northerly around 10pm in Mobile. Not sure whether it will be early enough in evening to convince any fallout birds from today to stay with us overnight. If that does happen, there could be morning flight tomorrow.
Date: 5/10/26 11:32 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Douglas-
I would not recommend Pelican Point Park for looking for birds leaving the Ft. Morgan peninsula in spring, primarily because the bayshore is trending back northwest at that point. Birds that follow the Ft. Morgan peninsula eastward are (I would guess) jonesing to head north or northeast, and will simply head overland in those directions once they clear the blockage of the bay. Thus, they would not bend back northwest and would not pass Pelican Pt.
Regarding flight paths overland vs over water: I would expect them to stay onshore, except perhaps when they reach the corner, and fly overwater to make a shortcut across it. However, flight paths at Lake Pontchartrain are often a bit inland from the actual shore, some even beyond the reach of binoculars from the shore. So, if you don’t get much on the shore itself, consider re-positioning further south.
Be aware, I suspect that the flight off the peninsula might wane as soon as an hour after sunrise, because birds (judging from Lake Pontchartrain) progress along the shore at about 20 mph, so that at Ft. Morgan even a bird from as far away as the tip would have rounded the corner and headed inland within that first hour. But who knows- could be lengthened by birds delaying starting the movement, birds moving east across the bay mouth from the barrier islands farther west, birds coming in off the ocean after sunrise, etc. We have more questions than answers at this point.
Which is a good thing to reiterate- this is all in its infancy, and many of my suppositions are guesswork. But it is fun to sleuth out!
PY
Peter H. Yaukey, Ph.D.woul
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 Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...>
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2026 12:43 PM
To: Albirds <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Thanks Bob-
Intriguing- I believe I know that gas station. Nice view out over the marsh from behind it.
Since you are describing movements on the east side of Mobile Bay, that raises another scenario when the bay might funnel migrants. Namely, by blocking westbound circumgulf movements in fall.
I know you are keen on Yellow Warbler morning flight- I read your paper in FFN years ago when prepping my paper on South Pt. Have you visited that spot in early fall before, any thoughts on Yellow or Kingbird movement along the shore there?
PY
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 Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 3:38 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob Duncan
Gulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/10/26 10:43 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Thanks Bob-
Intriguing- I believe I know that gas station. Nice view out over the marsh from behind it.
Since you are describing movements on the east side of Mobile Bay, that raises another scenario when the bay might funnel migrants. Namely, by blocking westbound circumgulf movements in fall.
I know you are keen on Yellow Warbler morning flight- I read your paper in FFN years ago when prepping my paper on South Pt. Have you visited that spot in early fall before, any thoughts on Yellow or Kingbird movement along the shore there?
PY
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 Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 3:38 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob Duncan
Gulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/9/26 1:38 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Hi,
Lucy and I have witnessed good movements of birds moving N in Spring and S in Fall along the east side of Mobile Bay from our position behind the Shell station at Spanish Fort (just S of I-10),These appeared to be migrating birds and not foraging forays. This makes sense. It is a good location, unobstructed by trees. These were incidental stops while leading field trips.
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze,FL
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:28:29 PM CDT, Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> wrote:
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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, LAÂ 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
Â
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flightÂ
| | You don't often get email from <dhamm72...> Learn why this is important | |
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
You mentioned 4/27/23 in your email. Here are my two checklists from that day on the Ft. Morgan peninsulahttps://ebird.org/checklist/S135216722 and https://ebird.org/checklist/S135222534. I suspect the outer edge of that movement made it at least as far as Gulf Shores.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird listhttps://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos.  Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination,  do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline.  Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.Apologies for my verbosity folks,Peter YaukeyPS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco). PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
  Â
Date: 5/9/26 11:28 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Maybe a bayview somewhere in the Sailboat Bay Condo complex in Oyster Bay?
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 Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 1:17 PM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/9/26 11:28 am From: Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
The shoreline of Mobile Bay is fairly well defined. There are a few indentions, at Oyster Bay and Weeks Bay, but otherwise very distinct. Check out the Pelican Point hotspot at Weeks Bay. Does that look like a good spot to you? Also, would the migrants fly over land just inshore or could they be over water but within sight of land?
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 01:17:21 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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, LAÂ 70131
504-398-2312 Direct
504-394-7744 Main
Â
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flightÂ
| | You don't often get email from <dhamm72...> Learn why this is important | |
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
You mentioned 4/27/23 in your email. Here are my two checklists from that day on the Ft. Morgan peninsulahttps://ebird.org/checklist/S135216722 and https://ebird.org/checklist/S135222534. I suspect the outer edge of that movement made it at least as far as Gulf Shores.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird listhttps://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos.  Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination,  do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline.  Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.Apologies for my verbosity folks,Peter YaukeyPS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco). PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
  Â
Date: 5/9/26 11:17 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
Douglas-
Thanks for your interest. There was a comment on an eBird list (yeserday I think) of eastward movement of dozens of warblers along the Ft Morgan peninsula. If you can think of any place to watch the sky for birds doing so and rounding the southeast corner of Mobile Bay to head north, that would be cool to check out. Not sure how the shoreline access is there, or how clean the bayshore is (when a shoreline gets diffuse, it is harder to predict flight paths).
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 Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...>
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 12:48 PM
To: <albirds...> <albirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep them coming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let me know. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL, so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly bird the areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/9/26 10:48 am From: Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
First of all, I greatly appreciate the updates. Keep themcoming.
Secondly, if I can help look for fallouts for you, let meknow. I am retired, so I can go out any time. Also, I live in Gulf Shores, AL,so I am right in the middle of the area you are interested in. I regularly birdthe areas you mentioned anyway, so it wouldn’t even be out of the way for me.
You mentioned 4/27/23 in your email. Here are my twochecklists from that day on the Ft. Morgan peninsula https://ebird.org/checklist/S135216722andhttps://ebird.org/checklist/S135222534.I suspect the outer edge of that movement made it at least as far as GulfShores.
Again, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.
On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 12:01:04 PM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird listhttps://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos.  Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination,  do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline.  Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.Apologies for my verbosity folks,Peter YaukeyPS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco). PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
  Â
Date: 5/9/26 10:01 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] thoughts on fallout morning flight
ALBirders:
There was a large fallout reported at Fort Morgan two days ago, with about 2500 transgulf birds arriving, dominated by Swainson’s Thrush, Redstart, and Maggie. Here is the eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S334095331 Many of you are probably aware of a massive fallout in rainy conditions at Dauphin Island on 4/27/23 reportedly involving c. 50,000 birds passing from the island to the mainland, viewed as a skywatch, led by 15,000 Red-eyed Vireos. Here is that list https://ebird.org/checklist/S135307185 The fact that the birds in the latter case were moving northward in daylight onto the mainland, begs the question of what situations lead to fallout birds continuing movement, and what we can do to crack that code so that we could witness such events. The weather map for 7am on 4.27.23 is pasted below. Another stalled front situation, apparently. That frontal boundary is along the northern Gulf coast for the three mornings previous to that map, as well.
In New Orleans, we have large morning flights on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in FALL, at its east end (South Pt). In fall the best mornings are 20-30,000 migrants in 2-3 hours. We have known about it since 2002. This appears to be a corrective movement, happening after fall cold fronts, with the birds heading back northward in the morning into the wind, apparently attempting to correct for wind drift the night before.
It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we discovered that spring flights sometimes happen there too, with as many as 9,000 birds in a morning detected so far (that flight was dominated by Indigos and Blue Grosbeaks). We have only seen four or so of those spring flights, but the mechanism seems to be continued diurnal forward movement of birds that had been grounded in a frontal fallout the night before. They continue northward in the morning (against a headwind), low to minimize the wind resistance, and get deflected by the Pontchartrain shoreline until they come to South Pt and launch across the 5 mile water gap (into the wind).
This begs the question of whether any of the other large water indentations along the northern Gulf have similar concentrating effects. Do the birds continuing north want to go due north, or northeast? Those with a NE inclination, do they accumulate into a larger flow along the western shore of Pascagoula River Marsh, or Mobile Bay, or Escambia Bay?
I spend lots of time in Pensacola, and have contemplated the shorelines of Escambia Bay (and connected features) for some time, but have presumed the water crossings were too short to force birds to deflect instead of crossing. However, out of curiosity last fall, I searched the eBird high counts for Santa Rosa County (which forms the southern edge of the Bay), and there is a fall report (Oct 2002) of 1000 Palm Warblers streaming east along the bayshore in the early AM, akin to what South Point birds do in fall in their approach along the Pontchartrain shoreline. Then, last Nov, I tried out a spot at the southeast corner of the bay (the Tom King Bayou Bridge), and had 3000 robins heading northeast around the corner of the bay, also parallel to the Lake Pontchartrain phenomenon. So, continuing the analogy with Lake Pontchartrain, could there be an exodus of spring fallout birds around the eastern end of the Bay as well? I haven’t been able to free up my schedule on the right mornings to go and check yet, but I am itching to do so.
Bob and Lucy, I know you live near the other corner of the bay; if you have insights to bear on this, I would love to hear them.
Apologies for my verbosity folks,
Peter Yaukey
PS- just because birders have not keyed in on morning flights along these Gulf bays before, doesn’t mean they can’t be happening regularly. Indeed, two of the best morning flight locations on the continent were discovered just in the last decade or so in two of our most heavily birded cities, within the actual city limits, somehow undetected previously (Bear Divide, Los Angeles, and Battery Godfrey on the Presidio in San Francisco).
PPS- yes, I apologized for my verbosity, and then promptly added more. *sigh *
Date: 5/9/26 8:54 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] another incoming flight meeting the rain
AL Birders:
The theme of the last few days is repeating itself, with another incoming flight apparently running into the rain as we speak.
The images below are this morning, 730 am and 1000am. Notice that the blue haze of incoming birds over the water is absent at 730am (because they have not yet arrived over the Gulf), but widespread at 1000am. And getting smacked by rain in the latter.
Date: 5/8/26 9:20 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] another incoming flight
ALBirders:
Another incoming flight evident on radar. The wind situation is complicated (NE Mobile, E Pensacola, E Biloxi), so it is hard to say how much it will impede progress. Likewise rain is still set a bit back from the immediate coast, but could cause some fallout wherever it ends up blocking incoming birds.
Keep in mind that we do not know the nature of the incoming flight- if, for instance, it is mainly shorebirds, then grounded birds would be on wet lawns (etc) rather than the woods.
Date: 5/7/26 4:45 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] fallout
Hi again,
No fallout in Gulf Breeze but reports from D I and Ft Morgan indicate otherwise. The rain did not happen here until about 11 a.m. apparently too late to bring them down.
Bob Duncan
Date: 5/7/26 1:36 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] incoming flight meeting frontal mess
Hi all,
No evidence of fallout in Gulf Breeze in spite of conditions. This is happening too often nowadays. Not like the "old days". Declining bird populations the culprit?
 Bob Duncan
On Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 10:50:05 AM CDT, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:
ALBirders:
There appears to be a significant incoming transGulf flight already happening (light blue haze over water in image, which began appearing around 7am), therefore in position to be grounded by the rain that is just now hitting the coast (with a shift to headwinds hot on its heals).
By conventional wisdom, this is a good time to get out for migrants, starting immediately and perhaps building during the day. The north winds should keep birds overnight.
Good birding,
Peter
PS- reports from the coast would be nice, as conventional wisdom is not always on target!
 (
Date: 5/7/26 8:50 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] incoming flight meeting frontal mess
ALBirders:
There appears to be a significant incoming transGulf flight already happening (light blue haze over water in image, which began appearing around 7am), therefore in position to be grounded by the rain that is just now hitting the coast (with a shift to headwinds hot on its heals).
By conventional wisdom, this is a good time to get out for migrants, starting immediately and perhaps building during the day. The north winds should keep birds overnight.
Good birding,
Peter
PS- reports from the coast would be nice, as conventional wisdom is not always on target!
Date: 5/6/26 2:07 pm From: David George via groups.io <davidpgeorge50...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] incoming flight
Very interesting. Please keep posting this information.
David George
On Wed, May 6, 2026 at 2:06 PM Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey=
<uhcno.edu...> wrote:
> AL Birders:
>
> Gotta love this radar stuff.
>
> Large incoming transgulf flight today, presumably overflying the coastal
> zone as usual, visible on the Mobile radar as the scattering of pale blue
> echoes in the southern parts of the radar field (including over the Gulf).
> Image below is the peak, which was around noon, although it is still going
> pretty strong in the western part of the radar as I post this. Echoes over
> the Gulf began appearing around 8:30am. This flight is perhaps 1-2 hours
> earlier than average, which presumably indicates tailwinds propelling their
> advance.
>
> The darker blue in southeast Louisiana is rain, and people reading this
> from SW Mississippi along its path may want to check for grounded migrants
> because it appears to be meeting the oncoming birds.
>
> Peter
>
>
> *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*
>
>
>
> [image: cid:91D4B89B-2D58-4695-9437-0B7014880A72]
>
>
>
>
Date: 5/6/26 12:07 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] incoming flight
AL Birders:
Gotta love this radar stuff.
Large incoming transgulf flight today, presumably overflying the coastal zone as usual, visible on the Mobile radar as the scattering of pale blue echoes in the southern parts of the radar field (including over the Gulf). Image below is the peak, which was around noon, although it is still going pretty strong in the western part of the radar as I post this. Echoes over the Gulf began appearing around 8:30am. This flight is perhaps 1-2 hours earlier than average, which presumably indicates tailwinds propelling their advance.
The darker blue in southeast Louisiana is rain, and people reading this from SW Mississippi along its path may want to check for grounded migrants because it appears to be meeting the oncoming birds.
Date: 5/4/26 12:23 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] Last night liftoff image and next front
There was a nice liftoff image from the AL and MS coasts last night, visible on the Mobile radar (when viewed unfiltered at rap.ucar.edu), posted below. Bye bye, migrants. On such evenings when coastal fallout birds lift off and continue northward, it can often be fun farther inland to listen to the airspace for call notes, shortly after dark. In New Orleans such events often produce peaks with >1 call note per second, even in the (sub)urban noisy airspace, usually for a fairly short window around 9pm as the birds proceeding from the coast pass over in the darkness. I presume that one could predict the time to step outside and listen at one's own inland location with at least fair accuracy, by figuring about 30 minutes after sunset, per 20 miles inland.
But don't fret those migrants' departure, the next front is upon us, scheduled for Thursday, with rain and an afternoon wind shift to drop any migrants arriving trans-Gulf.
Date: 5/2/26 10:10 am From: Doris Gertler via groups.io <dee.gertler...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] liftoff satelllite images from 5 days ago
The radar images are very interesting. Thank you for posting!
Dee Gertler
On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 10:37 PM Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey=
<uhcno.edu...> wrote:
> Birders:
>
> A friend from New Orleans alerted me that she experienced a nice fallout
> at Dauphin Island last Sunday, and I finally got around to pulling up the
> liftoff imagery of those birds leaving that evening. From rap.ucar.edu.
>
> The green echo in the images below is the birds departing the coastal zone
> (or offshore islands), at 825 pm and then an hour later- notice the
> northward progress.
>
> There was rain in the area earlier, which presumably induced the fallout.
> As is often the case with rain-induced fallouts, the rain had abated by
> nightfall and southerly winds were present, which stimulated the birds to
> leave immediately rather than spending the night.
>
> As for tonight, if there is any fallout along the AL coast from this front
> (haven't heard reports), the headwinds and rain would normally keep the
> birds here overnight (or longer). No liftoff was evident on tonight's
> radar, although all the rain in the radar field might make such a thing
> hard to detect.
>
> Peter Yaukey
>
>
>
>
>
> *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*
>
>
>
> [image: cid:91D4B89B-2D58-4695-9437-0B7014880A72]
>
>
>
>
Date: 5/1/26 8:37 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] liftoff satelllite images from 5 days ago
Birders:
A friend from New Orleans alerted me that she experienced a nice fallout at Dauphin Island last Sunday, and I finally got around to pulling up the liftoff imagery of those birds leaving that evening. From rap.ucar.edu.
The green echo in the images below is the birds departing the coastal zone (or offshore islands), at 825 pm and then an hour later- notice the northward progress.
There was rain in the area earlier, which presumably induced the fallout. As is often the case with rain-induced fallouts, the rain had abated by nightfall and southerly winds were present, which stimulated the birds to leave immediately rather than spending the night.
As for tonight, if there is any fallout along the AL coast from this front (haven't heard reports), the headwinds and rain would normally keep the birds here overnight (or longer). No liftoff was evident on tonight's radar, although all the rain in the radar field might make such a thing hard to detect.
Date: 4/28/26 2:02 pm From: Greg D. Jackson via groups.io <g_d_jackson...> Subject: [ALbirds] AOS benches at Dauphin Island
AL Birders:
As some of you are aware from recent coastal trips, visiting the Dauphin
Island birding hotspots has become just a bit easier and more comfortable.
As part of the AOS "Benches for Birders" program, we have placed multiple
units at spots around the eastern part of the Island. These attractive,
coated-metal benches were put at specific sites where lingering for birds
may be productive. All can be recognized by plaques showing the AOS name and
logo, with QR codes scannable directly to our website.
Six benches were positioned with another in reserve pending landowner
permission. Two are in the banding area of the Sanctuary, three are in the
area of the Goat Tree (including the Ani and Porter lots), and one is at the
bowl of the Shell Mounds where some of the older benches had been removed.
This fall we will place the last one somewhere on the Island (we have a
great spot targeted if we can get clearance), and likely will add more to
the mix as needed.
Many thanks go to Chuck Estes, who worked hard to assemble and place all
these benches. Thanks go as well to Cynthia Freeman for receiving the
shipments at her home and helping Chuck put them together. Others were also
involved setting these out, with our appreciation all around.
If you're birding in these areas you should take the old Southern advice to
"sit a spell" and enjoy the birds and settings. Take a selfie and post it
with a tag to AOS. Enjoy!
Date: 4/23/26 7:34 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Brown-crested Flycatcher
...and the bill is way too big for ATFL or GCFL!
On Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 07:50:12 PM CDT, Drew Haffenden <andrew...> wrote:
Interesting bird. The wide white edging on the inner tertial looks better for Great Crested but the dark outer edge of the outer tail feather crossing the shaft into the inner web looks better for Brown-crested.
Cheers,
Drew HaffendenFrom: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Duncan, Scot via groups.io <scotduncan99...>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2026 8:37:57 PM
To: Albirds <ALbirds...>
Subject: [ALbirds] Brown-crested Flycatcher Brown-crested Flycatcher at Fort Morgan late yesterday. Seen well by several of us. Pics and details on eBird.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S325763940 R. Scot Duncan, Ph.D.Conservation biologist, author, advocate, and birder.https://www.rsduncan.com/ Author of Southern Wonder and Southern RiversExecutive Director, Alabama AudubonFor Alabama Audubon matters, please use <Scot...>
Interesting bird. The wide white edging on the inner tertial looks better for Great Crested but the dark outer edge of the outer tail feather crossing the shaft into the inner web looks better for Brown-crested.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Duncan, Scot via groups.io <scotduncan99...>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2026 8:37:57 PM
To: Albirds <ALbirds...>
Subject: [ALbirds] Brown-crested Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher at Fort Morgan late yesterday. Seen well by several of us. Pics and details on eBird.
Date: 4/22/26 10:08 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] follow up on Red-headed Woodpecker migration mystery
Hello All:
I am very intrigued by this RHWO situation, because over in New Orleans one of our odd discoveries in the last 5 or so years is that RHWO occur with some regularity in active migration at South Point on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain during spring migration, despite having previously been thought to be basically absent from New Orleans year round (despite nesting commonly just north across Lake P).
Skywatching at South Pt often turns up multiples per day, flying up the lakefront and crossing the 5-mile water gap to Slidell northbound.
We had puzzled over where these birds could possibly be coming from, since there were no wintering populations to our south.
I wonder if they also could be coming northwest from peninsular Florida???
Peter Yaukey
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 Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2026 9:34 PM
To: Nflbirds <nflbirds...>; Albirds <albirds...>
Subject: [ALbirds] follow up on Red-headed Woodpecker migration mystery
Not such a mystery after all!
Notice the Cornell BirdCast map for tonight. It shows that birds are leaving south Florida (where many, many RHWOs winter) and flying northwestward cutting across the eastern Gulf. Live Maps – BirdCast<https://birdcast.org/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/>
Date: 4/21/26 7:30 am From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] Red-headed Woodpecker migration
Hi all,
A diagonal approach makes sense. They probably have the same genetic impulse to do that like W. Kingbirds and Scissor-tails that winter in the SE and Peninsula. Maybe this is the western population of Red-heads that do that.
Bob
Date: 4/20/26 7:27 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] Red-headed Woodpecker migration
Hi all,
Today, Lucy and I had six Red-headed Woodpeckers in our migrant trap yard at one time! These were our first of the year and are usually absent the rest of the year. Lucy and I have seen them coming in off the Gulf with trans-Gulf migrants during fallout conditions on several occasions. Other birders have witnessed this as well. But there are no records for Cuba or the rest of the Indies, nor Mexico. So where are they coming from?
Several years ago a birder from the peninsular Florida suggested they were probably coming from there since they do winter down state. That seems the only logical explanation for this odd phenomenon. My thanks to this birder whose name I forgot for probably solving this mystery some of us up here have been pondering for years.
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, FL
Date: 4/19/26 8:00 pm From: Ken Hare via groups.io <kmhare46...> Subject: [ALbirds] AOS
If you’re a member of AOS who took photos while attending the organization’s spring meeting this past weekend, and if you post some of them on social media, please mention AOS in your post.
A simple “taken while on Dauphin Island for the Alabama Ornithological Society spring meeting” would suffice. Thanks for boosting AOS.
Date: 4/19/26 7:17 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] High hopes dashed
Hi all,
    Lucy and I were at Dauphin Is. this weekend for the Alabama Ornithological Society's Spring meeting. This morning we awoke to a blistering cold N wind 25 to 30 mph and light rain. Fallout conditions!! A check of radar and weather map showed the front about 100 miles south of the coast and rain extending somewhat off shore. Perfect conditions to catch incoming trans-Gulf migrants. A classic fallout was in order. Sure enough, at the east end of the island we watched a flock of over 50 E. Kingbirds fly in from the Gulf, then hunker down out of the wind along with one bedraggled Gray Kingbird. Kingbirds are considered the vanguards of a trans-Gulf movement since they are strong flyers and are among the first to arrive. High hopes for the dozens of birders on the island! There were a few straggler species present on the island, probably left overs from yesterday. But by the time we left the island around noon, there was no sign of a fallout expected from the severe conditions except for a few migrants. For "old timers" what was present was a "trickle" compared to the fallouts of the 70s and 80s. Why?
  There were no fallouts at Ft. Pickens nor when we got home around 2 pm except for three species of warblers at our pond. Kingbirds had been reported locally however. A check of the conditions in S Gulf, Yucatan and W. Cuba did not indicate adverse conditions for takeoff. Winds had been N during the morning but by noon had veered to the NNE. The birds, if they left Yucatan around dusk yesterday, should have hit the bad weather in the n. Gulf, and although the easterly component could have shifted any movement to our west, it was not too far off due N. Furthermore, any birds flying N on a broad front, including those in the east central Gulf, should have come our way, as evidenced by the presence of the Gray Kingbird which made it.Â
  It should be noted that this condition had happened back in the "old days" and was baffling to us old timers back then. But then, birds were far more plentiful then and I have the nagging feeling that what happened today was a result of fewer birds leaving the tropics each Spring. But then maybe that was not the cause of today's disappointment.  Â
Regarding Kingbirds, E. Kingbirds winter as far south as Bolivia and as strong flyers they do not have to leave from n. Yucatan (where about the northern 30 miles is semi-arid). This can account for odd arrival times sometimes (normal arrival time for trans-Gulf birds is late morning early afternoon, depending on wind direction and velocity). So whatever reason there was for our dismay, we will never know the cause. Only the birds know.
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, FLÂ Â Â Â
Date: 4/19/26 6:47 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] Bird banding at Ft. Morgan April 20 - 25
Bird Banding at Fort Morgan (Free!) April 20 - 24, 2026 // 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM April 25, 2026 // 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM Our banding station is one of the few in the US open to the public. Join us to see migrant birds up close after their journey across the Gulf of Mexico. Bring your cameras and enjoy unparalleled access to the researchers and their work, with up-close-and-personal views of some amazing birds!
This is an amazing opportunity to see birds and learn more about them!Lucy Duncan
Date: 4/17/26 6:16 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Strong tropical influence & birding prospects
Forecast is currently for the frontal wind shift to occur around 3am Sunday morning in Mobile, so potentially a fallout on Sunday for any incoming transgulf flight. Winds forecast to remain northerly Sunday night so birds may stick through Monday (and possibly Tuesday).
Date: 4/17/26 5:59 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: [ALbirds] Egrets nesting (almost) under Mobile Bay bridge
AL Birders:
If anyone is wondering how close GREG egrets can form a rookery to a very busy expressway bridge, the answer appers to be, practically underneath it.
I shot the (lame) cell photo below today while crossing the I-10 bridge eastbound, there are perhaps 4-6 GREG sitting on nests in that brushy clump. It is between mile markers 35-36, I think. It is not visible from the westbound lanes, too close beneath. There is another small baldcypress clump with GREGs sitting on nests a couple hundred yards north, visible from westbound lanes. Sorry if this is all common knowledge.
The birds being invisible because they are too close beneath the road calls to mind the crazy Brown Booby roost that formed under the Lake Pontchartrain causway 10 or so years ago when the Booby Madness was just ramping up, with a couple dozen roosting on the side the the bridge structure, invisible to the thousands of cars driving within c. 10 feet of them every day.
Date: 4/16/26 8:09 am From: john cole via groups.io <johnb_cole...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Lightning Point hotspot closed
I was afraid that might happen. Hopefully, they can spare the Lightning Point observation area by making it an attractive nature park destination.
On Thursday, April 16, 2026, 10:58 AM, Ken Hare via groups.io <kmhare46...> wrote:
> On Apr 16, 2026, at 9:03 AM, Ken Hare <kmhare46...> wrote:
>
> > FYI: For birders heading to AOS weekend, access to Lightning Point hotspot near Bayou La Batre is closed for development. I am told that hotspot is under a conservation easement and will remain accessible after development over.
>
> Ken Hare
Date: 4/16/26 7:58 am From: Ken Hare via groups.io <kmhare46...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Lightning Point hotspot closed
> On Apr 16, 2026, at 9:03 AM, Ken Hare <kmhare46...> wrote:
>
> > FYI: For birders heading to AOS weekend, access to Lightning Point hotspot near Bayou La Batre is closed for development. I am told that hotspot is under a conservation easement and will remain accessible after development over.
>
> Ken Hare
Date: 4/16/26 7:05 am From: Ken Hare via groups.io <kmhare46...> Subject: [ALbirds] Lightning Point hotspot closed
FYI: For birders heading to AOS weekend, access to Lightning Point hotspot near Bayou La Batre is closed for development. Not sure if site will remain after development over.
Date: 4/13/26 4:24 pm From: Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io <RobertADuncan...> Subject: [ALbirds] Strong tropical influence & birding prospects
Hi all,
We have a strong E & SE influence, prevalent most of the week and strengthened today. Bad for NW Floridians to get trans-Gulf migrants (lucky Texans) but very good for West Indian migrants and tropical vagrants to show up. Think Black-whiskered Vireo and with luck Tropical Kingbird and with more luck an Elaenia (one Florida record) and with LOTS of luck a Slaty-crowned Flycatcher (one LA record).
Winds from the mid-Gulf buoy are 15 - 20 mph E and here about 12 - 16 SE. So let's get out there and generate some excitement!
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, FL
Date: 4/11/26 1:37 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Birding prospects
Hi Bob and ALBird:
And long-range wind forecasts on windy.com indicate Sunday of next weekend (European model) or the next day (American) as the next cold front passage that could induce fallout. Of course, lots of rain can do it as well.
Date: 4/11/26 12:50 pm From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
Thanks Kathryn-
That is important intel, I had assumed that because it was already an eBird hotspot, it was a place birders visited regularly. If anyone has recommendations of a different location along the western bayshore with a good sky view in all directions, please let me know.
I see your list from yesterday, thanks. Negative data are valuable, as part of the process is figuring out when (under what weather conditions) to expect flights.
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 Kathryn Firsching via groups.io <firschingk...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 2:27 PM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
You don't often get email from <firschingk...> Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> I stopped by and didn’t see a single kite or raptor. Just royal terns and one snowy. Seemed kind of a dicey spot in terms of safety.
Kathryn
On Apr 11, 2026, at 1:55 PM, Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> wrote:

Drew and ALBirders:
Thanks for the input.
Drew makes the excellent point that correction from Gulf wind drift is not the only possible explanation for why most kites moving along the northern Gulf Coast are eastbound. He rightly points out that it is possible they have simply chosen to go west around the Gulf enroute to eastern nesting grounds (e.g., in the panhandle, Georgia).
The main factor that caused the drift-from-east hypothesis to germ in my mind are tracks of birds (by satellite), which show a heavy movement of birds from a South Carolina nesting population using the eastern corridor (see below). But, other SE USA nesters (from panhandle FL, etc) might not do what SC nesters do.
To me, a STKI concentration point would be well worth finding along the Gulf Coast regardless of the mechanism that generates the eastward movement. For the fun of watching them, and for the potential benefit of adding a tool to monitoring of their populations.
Another problem I recognize is that my perceptions of the dominance of eastbound movement are based on migrants through New Orleans, where birds could be eastbound simply because they are heading east until they are clear of Lake Pontchartrain and free to turn more northward. I would benefit from any notations any of you could make in your Mar-Apr eBird sightings in the Alabama coastal zone, indicating direction of movement (especially of birds moving forward, not just drifting while circling). Distinguishing migrating birds from nesters will be harder in AL than in New Orleans, so groups of 3 or more in particular (more likely to be migratory, I hope) would be of interest.
Thanks everyone!
Peter
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Drew Haffenden via groups.io <andrew...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 3:41 AM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
You don't often get email from <andrew...> Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> These kites have two routes, one (smaller) is island hopping via Caribbean islands to FL peninsula and the majority circum-gulf. Neither routes are trans-gulf and as an eastern breeding circum-gulf migrant spring migrants would be expected to be traveling east.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of John P Valentik via groups.io <jpatvalentik...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 6:52:09 AM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
This is my first time posting to this chat group. I am a New Orleans birder of many years, but recently have been commuting twice a week from there to Pensacola, and have been doing some birding during my transits of southern AL.
One pattern I have noticed in Louisiana over the years is that migrant Swallow-tailed Kites in spring there are generally eastbound. They do not nest south of Lake Pontchartrain, so birds in the New Orleans area are all passage migrants. I am of the opinion that these eastbound birds are Florida nesters that have been wind displaced westward during their Gulf crossings from the Yucatan or Cuba to peninsular Florida, which end up not making landfall until they reach the northern Gulf Coast, and then correct for the error by moving east along the coast to get back to peninsular FL. Their densities are much higher in peninsular FL as nesters than elsewhere.
Because the species is of conservation concern, I am interested in seeing if there is anywhere that this eastward corrective movement gets concentrated enough that it might result in decent day counts if someone were to skywatch. Because Mobile Bay could block their eastward progress and deflect them north before they cross it, I have made a couple stops lately at Helen Wood park south of Mobile. The first stop prodcued 5 STKI in 30 min, and then yesterday my second visit produced 6 STKI in 45 min.
If anyone is at all interested in this, I could use the help gathering data from skywatching at Helen Wood park or elsewhere on the western bayshore. Please let me know, and I will of course be checking eBird.
There was also a hirundid/swift movement up the bayshore yesterday while I was scanning for kites, with 45 Barn, 10 swifts, and 20 swallow sp, in the 45 minute watch. Sharpy and Broadwing added a little accent to the skywatch as well.
Date: 4/11/26 11:55 am From: Yaukey, Peter via groups.io <pyaukey...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
Drew and ALBirders:
Thanks for the input.
Drew makes the excellent point that correction from Gulf wind drift is not the only possible explanation for why most kites moving along the northern Gulf Coast are eastbound. He rightly points out that it is possible they have simply chosen to go west around the Gulf enroute to eastern nesting grounds (e.g., in the panhandle, Georgia).
The main factor that caused the drift-from-east hypothesis to germ in my mind are tracks of birds (by satellite), which show a heavy movement of birds from a South Carolina nesting population using the eastern corridor (see below). But, other SE USA nesters (from panhandle FL, etc) might not do what SC nesters do.
To me, a STKI concentration point would be well worth finding along the Gulf Coast regardless of the mechanism that generates the eastward movement. For the fun of watching them, and for the potential benefit of adding a tool to monitoring of their populations.
Another problem I recognize is that my perceptions of the dominance of eastbound movement are based on migrants through New Orleans, where birds could be eastbound simply because they are heading east until they are clear of Lake Pontchartrain and free to turn more northward. I would benefit from any notations any of you could make in your Mar-Apr eBird sightings in the Alabama coastal zone, indicating direction of movement (especially of birds moving forward, not just drifting while circling). Distinguishing migrating birds from nesters will be harder in AL than in New Orleans, so groups of 3 or more in particular (more likely to be migratory, I hope) would be of interest.
Thanks everyone!
Peter
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of Drew Haffenden via groups.io <andrew...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 3:41 AM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
You don't often get email from <andrew...> Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> These kites have two routes, one (smaller) is island hopping via Caribbean islands to FL peninsula and the majority circum-gulf. Neither routes are trans-gulf and as an eastern breeding circum-gulf migrant spring migrants would be expected to be traveling east.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of John P Valentik via groups.io <jpatvalentik...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 6:52:09 AM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
This is my first time posting to this chat group. I am a New Orleans birder of many years, but recently have been commuting twice a week from there to Pensacola, and have been doing some birding during my transits of southern AL.
One pattern I have noticed in Louisiana over the years is that migrant Swallow-tailed Kites in spring there are generally eastbound. They do not nest south of Lake Pontchartrain, so birds in the New Orleans area are all passage migrants. I am of the opinion that these eastbound birds are Florida nesters that have been wind displaced westward during their Gulf crossings from the Yucatan or Cuba to peninsular Florida, which end up not making landfall until they reach the northern Gulf Coast, and then correct for the error by moving east along the coast to get back to peninsular FL. Their densities are much higher in peninsular FL as nesters than elsewhere.
Because the species is of conservation concern, I am interested in seeing if there is anywhere that this eastward corrective movement gets concentrated enough that it might result in decent day counts if someone were to skywatch. Because Mobile Bay could block their eastward progress and deflect them north before they cross it, I have made a couple stops lately at Helen Wood park south of Mobile. The first stop prodcued 5 STKI in 30 min, and then yesterday my second visit produced 6 STKI in 45 min.
If anyone is at all interested in this, I could use the help gathering data from skywatching at Helen Wood park or elsewhere on the western bayshore. Please let me know, and I will of course be checking eBird.
There was also a hirundid/swift movement up the bayshore yesterday while I was scanning for kites, with 45 Barn, 10 swifts, and 20 swallow sp, in the 45 minute watch. Sharpy and Broadwing added a little accent to the skywatch as well.
Date: 4/11/26 1:41 am From: Drew Haffenden via groups.io <andrew...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
These kites have two routes, one (smaller) is island hopping via Caribbean islands to FL peninsula and the majority circum-gulf. Neither routes are trans-gulf and as an eastern breeding circum-gulf migrant spring migrants would be expected to be traveling east.
Cheers,
Drew Haffenden
________________________________
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> on behalf of John P Valentik via groups.io <jpatvalentik...>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 6:52:09 AM
To: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...>
Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Swallow-tailed Kite corrective migration (?)
This is my first time posting to this chat group. I am a New Orleans birder of many years, but recently have been commuting twice a week from there to Pensacola, and have been doing some birding during my transits of southern AL.
One pattern I have noticed in Louisiana over the years is that migrant Swallow-tailed Kites in spring there are generally eastbound. They do not nest south of Lake Pontchartrain, so birds in the New Orleans area are all passage migrants. I am of the opinion that these eastbound birds are Florida nesters that have been wind displaced westward during their Gulf crossings from the Yucatan or Cuba to peninsular Florida, which end up not making landfall until they reach the northern Gulf Coast, and then correct for the error by moving east along the coast to get back to peninsular FL. Their densities are much higher in peninsular FL as nesters than elsewhere.
Because the species is of conservation concern, I am interested in seeing if there is anywhere that this eastward corrective movement gets concentrated enough that it might result in decent day counts if someone were to skywatch. Because Mobile Bay could block their eastward progress and deflect them north before they cross it, I have made a couple stops lately at Helen Wood park south of Mobile. The first stop prodcued 5 STKI in 30 min, and then yesterday my second visit produced 6 STKI in 45 min.
If anyone is at all interested in this, I could use the help gathering data from skywatching at Helen Wood park or elsewhere on the western bayshore. Please let me know, and I will of course be checking eBird.
There was also a hirundid/swift movement up the bayshore yesterday while I was scanning for kites, with 45 Barn, 10 swifts, and 20 swallow sp, in the 45 minute watch. Sharpy and Broadwing added a little accent to the skywatch as well.
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